That ranking, an investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting has found, not only provides a veneer of legitimacy for troubled clinics such as the Pacific Reproductive Center, but also incentivizes a common practice that puts mother and baby at unnecessary risk. Yet even as IVF has made technological advancements, an outdated measurement system and weak consumer protections continue to obscure the differences between the best doctors in the business and those who run troubled clinics.Ĭreated by Congress 25 years ago, success rates are the primary government metric consumers have to go by when choosing a fertility clinic. Unsuccessful patients often are motivated to try again. Failure can be especially devastating.Ī round of in vitro fertilization can cost upward of $20,000. The price is steep, both financially and emotionally.

“So what are you saying?” she asked Salem.įor millions of American women who have struggled to get pregnant, fertility treatment has been the medicine of miracles. Her husband sat with his arms crossed, looking annoyed. They had fertilized 14 eggs, and because Salem had transferred three into Pineda’s uterus, Arias expected to find 11 in the petri dish. She had gone into the lab the day before to preserve Pineda’s leftover embryos and found something that didn’t add up. Arias sounded tiny and quiet, as though she were speaking from the bottom of a well. That day in the clinic’s conference room, Salem let his embryologist explain. Credit: Scott Anger for Reveal Credit: Scott Anger for Reveal The Pacific Reproductive Center has four locations in Southern California, including this clinic in Torrance. His clinic boasts one of the highest IVF success rates in the country.īut, as Pineda would learn, a lot can be hidden behind an impressive success rate. Four years earlier, he’d done the same for Pineda when her daughter Piper Joy was born. Over the course of his 30-year career, Salem had performed one miracle after another. Rifaat Salem, the medical director, and the clinic’s embryologist, Sandra Arias, who looked like she had been crying. This struck Pineda as strange, because two days earlier, he had put her on bed rest to improve the chances that her in vitro fertilization would take.Ī half-hour later, Pineda and her husband, David, arrived at the Pacific Reproductive Center in Torrance, California. “I need you to come into the office right away,” she remembers him saying. The caller’s voice sounded calm but insistent. Malissa Pineda was lying on her living room couch when her cellphone rang. Want more? Subscribe to our newsletter to get our investigations delivered straight to your inbox.

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