tv CNN Newsroom CNN March 3, 2012 2:00pm-3:00pm EST
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@alivelshi, i watch and read every one of your tweets. @cnnmoney. have a great weekend. you're in the "cnn newsroom." this saturday march 3rd, i'm fredericka whitfield. so much damage from a deadly storm system crossing a whopping 15 states. the destruction spans from the gulf of mexico to the great lakes and beyond. 97 tornado reports are coming in from 11 of those states. more than 30 people have been killed in this monster storm. rescue crews are combing through the rubble looking for survivors. don benson is one of those who made it through the storm in tennessee. his house did not. >> definitely i thank the lord for sparing as many people as he had. and i know these things can all
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be replaced. but like everyone else here, it's going to take a while. it's going to take a lot of construction to help out. >> it's important to note that this destruction storm system is not over yet. hitting parts of the deep south right now. more on that in a moment. all right. meantime, bp will pay about $7.8 billion to federal lawsuit with victims of the 2010 oil spill in the gulf of mexico. thousands of fishermen, hotel owners, and gulf coast residents will get a payout in april of 2010. the deepwater horizon oil rig exploded killing 11 people and causing the worst oil spill in u.s. history. and gas prices are going up again, the average price of a gallon of regular jumped more than a penny and a half in the last 24 hours. now nearly 3.76 a gallon, 30 cents more than last month. today's surge marks the 25th straight increase. the republican presidential
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candidates hope to build some momentum today that will carry them into super tuesday. washington state is holding its caucuses right now. ron paul is the only candidate still campaigning there. the other three hopefuls have moved on to ohio. it's 1 of 10 states holding primaries or caucuses on tuesday. all right. back now to our top story. the trail of destruction left by suspected tornadoes and severe storms. josh levs joins us now with pretty incredible video that's coming into us right now. >> just into us in the newsroom. we have been following images throughout the day. this is some of the most dramatic we have seen at all. let's first take a look at this video clip and i'll tell you a little bit about it. okay. so this is the set-up. this is inside a gas station in henryville, indiana, as tornadoes were coming through the area. there's a man who you'll meet in a moment who was inside that gas
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station at the time, certainly he was not aware there were going to be tornadoes. and he saw that from inside. then he steps outside and you and i will now watch the next video together. take a look. absolutely amazing. we're going to stay on this and i'm going to tell you a little bit about it. so he was inside this gas station. he said there had been some tough weather throughout the week. he was not aware there would be tornadoes there that day. he had just gotten inside the gas station when he saw the tornado that you and i saw just before, what looked like from the inside. and then he steps outside afterwards and sees this. wreaking havoc, bringing so much destruction. and henryville, indiana, is one of the major places we have been talking to you about. that was stricken by this. when he stepped outside, that is what he saw. it's absolutely stunning.
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and here's a little bit of what he had to say about that. >> the vehicles on 160 were being turned over in front of us. we saw the marathon station across the street completely leveled. nothing left of it. it then kept moving to the east and then you could tell with all the turbulence. >> and mentioned if he had been in the gas station directly across the street, he wouldn't have survived because it was flattened. this is a good example of the randomness we hear about with the tornadoes. the gas station he happened to be into was affected but people survived. and the one directly across the street had very much the opposite effect. and as we know, henryville took the brunt of the storm. this is one of the places we're talking about. i have some pictures. i also want to remind folks that we're looking at devastation throughout the entire region. this picture behind me up at cnn.com looks at madison county,
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alabama. and i'll go through a few of these quickly. and as you know, we have been getting images throughout the day. destroyed homes, businesses, roads impassable. people's livelihoods are gone in a great many cases. obviously this is the kind of thing we see in the wake of storms, but rarely, fred, do we see the kind of thing we see in that video. >> those images are extraordinary. and images from that gas station point of view, i can't believe he had the wherewithal to stand there and take that remarkable video. he was still and he seemed like he mained calm throughout. i'm glad he's okay. thanks so much, josh. in the meantime, let's take a look where the storm system might be right now and where it may be headed next. that storm system stretches in a line from north florida through georgia to the carolinas. take a look at the damage that are left behind already in charlotte. a tornado ripped through part of that city according to a fire department official.
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at least three people were injured. we'll check in on where this system's heading next. jacqui jeras because we're not completely out of the woods as yet. it still has more potential for damage. >> definitely. for wind damage, which they think will be more of an issue today than actual tornadoes and the other threat today is going to be flash flooding. we're getting a tremendous amount of rain with these storms. so first and foremost, we have a new tornado watch. this was just issued at the top of the hour. here you can see it across northern parts of florida into southern georgia, just south of savannah, including brunswick, over toward jacksonville, florida, and stretching toward tallahassee, and the main line we're going to be concerned about in the upcoming hours. this is going to last all afternoon long. this is going to go into the evening, and this watch doesn't expire until 8:00. but i do think today is a different animal than what we dealt with yesterday. we're not expecting the large destructive long track tornadoes, but these tornadoes will very often what will happen
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today, they're very difficult to see. you may not know they're there. so when the sirens go off and the warnings are let out, make sure you take cover. and take a look, a couple of warnings right now. one includesw waycross. these are doppler indicated tornadoes. we're seeing rotation within these storms, but haven't seen any spotters on the ground. but they could drop at any given time. it's a serious situation, you need to be seeking shelter, and a reminder, this is the lowest level of your home, put on your bike helmet, get into your bathroom if that's your safe place and make sure you're going to be there for the next 30 minutes or so. this will be the line we're watching over the next couple of hours. more of these storms that are developing behind here could intensify and also produce rotation. so that's going to be the area that we're watching and then the whole line itself will eventually be advancing on down to the south. now, just want to kind of show you the convective outlook as we
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see it and who's at threat for today. i think that threat is diminishing here. so the big focus will be then south georgia into north florida, could be inching down toward orlando late today. so keep that in mind if you have plans. and just kind of an overview, fredericka, of what we've been seeing over the last 24 plus hours. we've had so many reports of tornadoes, long track tornadoes, 11 different states being impacted by this outbreak. no tornado reports today. nothing confirmed on the ground that we've had those warnings and that could change. so we're going to be watching georgia and florida to possibly bring that number up. >> so with those warnings, some other advice i thought was really instructive. if you're at home. i love the baby seat that you mentioned for protection. but if you have a bike helmet, any of that, you may want to wear that, put that on if you have to take cover in that a safe place in your home because people forget about the potential for head injuries with things falling down. >> right. research has shown that most of
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the fatalities, unfortunately, in most situations are from debris por getting knocked around. you feel kind of foolish, people think i'm not putting on my bike helmet, i'm going to look like a fool, but there's no shame in it. whatever you can do to save your life or your kids' lives, do it. >> thanks so much. that's a look ahead. let's take another look at what this storm system has done. hard-hit area of henryville, indiana, about 20 miles north of louisville, kentucky. a tornado it is confirmed did flatten homes and threw cars and buses into buildings. 14 people are dead in southern indiana. the governors of kentucky and indiana sent national guard troops to help search for survivors and also provide some security. >> lucky it wasn't worse. as awful as this has been heartbreaking, of course. we're flying and will continue to up the track of this storm. it's a long storm. somebody later will tell us
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whether there were multiple tornadoes or not. it may have been 50 miles from here to chelsea and we lost lives each point along the way. >> while the governor tries to console his community, we're hearing amazing stories of survival from indiana, just like this one. rescuers found a 20-month-old baby girl in a field after an outbreak of tornadoes there. she was all alone and injured, but alive. she is now in a hospital. and a spokesman says the little girl is in critical condition but has been reunited with her family. and we'll have much more on the storm throughout the afternoon. also today, prince harry, the ambassador, british royals hit the road in honor of the queen's 60-year reign. details on that next. the most awarded cars in 2011. the volt's battery has been tested for more than 395,000 hours. ♪ and, most importantly, the volt has received the highest overall vehicle score for safety possible.
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some headlines overseas. in syria, shelling, street fighting, and a car bomb killed at least 20 people today. people in the city of homs saying they fired artillery and mortars into several neighborhoods today. and the humanitarian situation is getting worse. and britain's prince harry is in belize right now. his first time traveling solo representing his grandmother queen elizabeth ii. several members are visiting places all over the world celebrating the queen's 60 years on the throne. a new cutting edge test can
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give a woman a glimpse into her future of fertility. it's inexpensive and any woman can take it. dr. sanjay gupta has this week's "health for her." >> amy and tim's relationship was right out of the storybooks. >> we met right after college. in our hometown. actually grew up in the same hometown. we got married in the year 2000. we've been dating for about three years. >> reporter: after the wedding, dreams of some day starting a family. but there wasn't any rush. amy was still in law school and the couple wanted to wait to have children until they were more settled. >> the plan essentially was for me to get started, start working, get myself established at a firm where i knew i would be for a long time and then start working on having a family. >> reporter: but things didn't go according to plan. after four years of on and off trying, they realized something was wrong. and amy went in for a battery of tests. reproductive specialists say amy's problem is becoming too
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familiar among women under the age of 35. there is one test called an amh that checks the egg count. >> this actually can tell you on a score of less than .1, which is the lowest number up to four or greater how many eggs you might have left as your -- >> reporter: amy's doctor gave her that test and the results were shocking. >> the number came back incredibly low which reflected i had a low egg count. >> reporter: they were on their third round of artificial insemination when sage had a test. >> she said you have a .54. i looked it up online and my amh level where it was was that comparable of typical of a 40-year-old. >> reporter: you may not know a woman's eggs may not necessarily age in tandem with a woman's body. that means it's possible for a woman in her mid-30s to have the eggs and thus the fertility chances of a woman much older. >> we're finding that many of these ladies actually have lower
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ovarian reserve than ever anticipated. we're not sure why, but we're trying to get more of the young women to at least get their test done so they would know where they stand as far as being able to have children in the future. >> hi. >> reporter: despite their low test results, neither amy or sage gave up becoming pregnant. both women were able to harvest enough eggs to create embryos. amy is thrilled to become pregnant. >> it's amazing to start to think positively that it is going to happen. >> and both believe that all women should get tested and hopefully avoid some of the agony they went through. >> we're early on. find out where you're at. don't wait until you're 33 and think you have a couple of years, you know, to get pregnant a couple of times. >> we just think we're invincible and we can all have children into our 40s. and for some people, that's possible, but for most people it's not.
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system. and the dozens of suspected tornadoes reported to have swept across 11 states. metro atlanta, people were on tornado watch throughout the night. today they are assessing the damage from that severe storm. this is paulding county, west of atlanta which was hit by a possible tornado. and that's where we also find jennifer. how are they picking up the pieces there? >> reporter: well, there's a lot of cleanup going on. but more than that, people are feeling in awe of all the damage caused here. in this area in paulding county, so many homes just had the top floor taken out. this home, you can see there's a mattress right there. i'm told that was only bought three weeks ago and that was the bedroom. now you can see just to the right of it. that was a living room. and there was a tv, a couch, and actually the homeowner of this house bill clifford was sitting in that living room when the storm came through. and come up here and talk to us for a second. what was it like when you heard
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the wind and everything starting to come? >> scary, very scary. i wasn't paying attention. my son frank kept telling me, come downstairs and finally he got mad, i guess, and got mad at me. and i changed the tv and saw what was happening and i ran down the steps. >> and let's take a look at where you ran here, bill. we're going to go into the house and hang on a second here, we're going to let you go inside and take a look at the damage. you can see the sunlight coming in today because the top of this house is off. and take a look up those stairs, that used to be the second floor of this home. those are the stairs you came running down, bill. and where did you go? show us where you went. >> came down the stairs and we went in this closet. and i got in the corner and jerry got in this corner. and frank grabbed the door, our son, and he threw these towels over us and he pulled the door to close it, and about that time he was half way closed and the wind hit and tried to pull the door out of his hand, and he
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managed to get it closed and we were safe. but it only lasted a couple of seconds and went dead quiet. and when we came out of the room, everything was gone. >> must have been a terrifying few seconds there. >> awful, it was just awful. >> reporter: and when you look outside today and see what the near miss from when you ran down the stairs and hiding in this closet, what did you think when you saw your home? >> all i could think of, why did it take me so long to get in this closet? >> reporter: thank goodness. you see the damage here, but the one positive thing coming out of this, there have been no injuries reported. that's the good news. >> that's great news. thanks so much, jennifer. appreciate that. we'll have much more on the storms later on. meantime, each week on the next list, dr. sanjay gupta profiling innovators from all walks of life. tomorrow, you'll meet dan. he believes one important key to a nation's productivity is creating a strong community. in kenya, he has created a support system and a place to exchange ideas.
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>> i founded a community support group to empower by sharing knowledge. and also providing platforms for people to explore their talent. my thinking was that's at least another way of breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. >> all right. catch "the next list" each sunday at 2:00 eastern time right here on cnn. and do you have a home office? or do you deduct business dinners on your tax returns? well, tomorrow in the "cnn newsroom" at 2:30 eastern time, eight tax audit pitfalls to avoid.
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not quite knowing what the next phase was going to be, you know, because you been, you know, this is what you had been doing. you know, working, working, working, working, working, working. and now you're talking about, well you know, i won't be, and i get the chance to spend more time with my wife and my kids. it's my world. that's my world. ♪ we'll have much more of the newsroom 30 minutes. jacqui jeras is watching the storm system today. more than 30 people have died in this massive storm and many people have lost their homes. rescuers are trying to help right now. we'll be bringing you the latest. i'm fredericka whitfield. stay with us, a cnn special
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hello, everyone, i'm kyra phillips. i know how hard it can be to have a child. but at the age of 42, i was lucky enough to have twins thanks to ivf. but it's more than just maternal -- one-third of couples where the woman is under 35 have infertility problems. dr. andy toledo is a fertility specialist here at reproductive biology associates. the first ivf treatment center in the state of georgia. and dr. toledo thanks for joining me. i was lucky enough to have you monitoring my pregnancy. tell our viewers specifically women what we're up against nowadays. >> you hit on the big one, kyra. which age is the big one. if it's younger women we're talking about, then we're talking about things like tubal infections, infections that affect the female reproductive tract. we're talking about stress.
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we're talking about environmental factors that women get exposed to today. we're talking about their partner. because a lot of times the problem lies in the partner and, you know, 30% to 40% of the time, there's a male factor that goes along with this. >> and well, there's women like me, right, that started over in a new relationship, wanted a family. you're dealing with a lot of women my age, also women that have put their career first and really want to have kids when they're older. >> today is so much better than many years ago. there are more options. the techniques that we use, the medications that we use. really give couples that have the age-related issue as a problem chances to get pregnant when before there really was no options. so, yes, there are better options these days. >> we're going to talk more about those techniques and you're going to come back and talk to me in a few minutes. great, thanks so much. well, as you just heard, the older you get, the harder it is to conceive. but now there's a new simple
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test that gives women a glimpse into the future of their inf infertilit infertility. it's inexpensive and helping diagnose and treat infertility. why don't all doctors know about this? dr. sanjay gupta explains. >> reporter: amy and tim's relationship with right out of the storybooks. >> we met right after college. in our hometown, actually grew up in the same hometown. we got married in the year 2000. we'd been dating for about three years. >> after the wedding, dreams of some day starting a family. but there wasn't any rush, amy was still in law school and the couple wanted to wait to have children until they were more settled. >> the plan essentially was for me to get started working, get established at a firm where i knew i would be for a long time. and then start working on having a family. >> but things didn't go according to plan, after four years of on and off trying, they
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realized something was wrong and amy went in for a battery of tests. dr. mitchell lee says amy's problem is becoming all too familiar a problem. she says there is one test called an amh that checks the egg count. >> this actually can tell you on a score of less than . 1, which is the lowest number, up to four or greater how many eggs you might have left. >> amy's doctor gave her that test and the results were shocking. >> the number came back incredibly low, which reflected i had a really low egg count. >> sage and her partner were on the third round of artificial insemination when she had an amh test. >> she said you have .53. i did look it up online. where it was, it was that comparable of a typical of a 40-year-old. >> reporter: you may not know that a woman's eggs may not necessarily age in tandem with a woman's body. that means it's possible for a woman in her mid-30s to have the
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eggs and thus the fertility chances of a woman much older. >> we're finding that many of these ladies actually have lower ovarian reserve with the number of eggs left than we ever anticipated. we're not sure why, but we're trying to get more of the young women to at least get that test done so they would know where they stand as far as being able to have children in the future. >> hi. >> reporter: despite their low test results, neither gave up their dream of becoming pregnant using their own eggs. both women were able to harvest enough eggs to create embryos. amy is thrilled to be pregnant. >> it's amazing to start to think positively that it is going to happen. >> and both believe that all women should get tested and hopefully avoid some of the agony they went through. >> we're early on. find out where you're at. don't wait until you're 33 and think you have a couple of years, you know, to get pregnant a couple of times. >> we just think we're
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invincible and that we can all have children into our 40s. and for some people that's possible, but for most people it's not. >> dr. sanjay gupta, cnn. >> women's fertility starts to decline in her late 20s. that's right. her late 20s. by the time a woman hits 45, she has only a 1% chance of getting pregnant. but now there's a new cutting edge technique that could change that completely. i'll show it toe you next. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. if you have painful, swollen joints, i've been in your shoes. one day i'm on top of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. s i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel,
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some of the latest techniques. >> reporter: michelle and mike now have the family they always wanted, but it wasn't easy. at 30, she had to use hormone therapy to get pregnant. the result was their son levi who is now 7 years old. two years later they again had a hard time conceiving a second child and tried hormone therapy and ivf, in vitro fertilization. >> by the third time i knew it was becoming -- it's stressful. >> reporter: but after rounds of unsuccessful treatment, she learned she had premature ovarian failure. she couldn't produce any viable eggs so she chose to use an egg donor and mae was born. >> it was an emotionally taxing journey. i knew that one day i would look back and forget the struggle. and i did. i mean, it's hard for me to think about it now. but, you know, we had a
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wonderful family, i can't imagine it being any other way. >> reporter: the decision to use sperm or egg donation is a personal one. this doctor says it's often the best solution since donor egg and sperm can often offer higher success rates. >> donating -- around 28, 29 they start. >> so a 40-year-old woman says i'm not making eggs, good-quality eggs anymore, so i'll take a donor egg from a 25-year-old woman. has that 25-year-old woman's genetic material and you combine it with sperm from -- >> from the husband. >> the person's partner. is this something that happens a lot? >> oh, yes, absolutely. about 10 to 15 -- egg donation. >> interesting. >> reporter: reproductive specialist dr. mitchell lee says more and more families are
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choosing this route to have a family. >> they have a baby picture they can choose from. they also know most of their backgrounds, history, what their genetic make-up is, their interests, maybe their education. >> they get to choose them? >> yes, they get to choose them. >> how much would that process cost? >> it is $16,500, and that includes everything. >> if a woman in her mid-40s is pregnant, has a baby, is it -- is it almost assumed that woman had an egg donor? >> i think i had five women overall in 30 years that got a pregnancy at 45 with their own eggs. that's not a lot. >> michelle and mike plan to share their conception stories with both of their children. >> it needs to be okay for it to not be looked at as some weird thing to use alternate methods that, you know, a non-traditional way to have a family. >> if we're describing it in ten years, hopefully it's like
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describing, you know, to the doctor that it becomes a prevalent -- the stigma's gone. that'll help too. it's nothing we've worried about. >> reporter: dr. sanjay gupta, cnn. women are only able to get pregnant for as long as they have healthy eggs. and between the ages of 30 and 40, half of a woman's eggs are gone. by 45, the chance of getting pregnant is less than 1%. but now a relatively new technique called vitrification is helping women beat those odds. >> the ivf starts with ultrasound monitoring. prepping ovaries for development of eggs, blood tests and things going upstairs and retrieving eggs, using surgery, getting the eggs into the lab. >> dr. jamie may sound like an ordinary fertility doc, but he's
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not. he's one of the world's leading scientists with the knowledge to stop a woman's reproductive clock. >> when you first discovered you could do this, what was your reaction? >> well, when we had our first baby from it, it was very exciting. because we knew this would help a lot of people. >> he uses a technique developed within the last decade called vitrification which freezes eggs about 100,000 times faster than the old method. it's still considered experimental by the american society for reproductive medicine. >> we weren't very good at freezing eggs and the ice crystal damage to the cell was the problem and using the technique where you dehydrate the cell and flash freeze it without ice crystals allowed it to survive the freezing and thawing process so it could be as viable as if it'd never been
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frozen. >> reporter: he is the director of nyu's fertility center. since using this fairly new egg-freezing technique, he has seen a surge in new patients. there are now more than 900 frozen egg cycles safely secured in these liquid nitrogen tanks. he's made it his life's work to tell women when it comes to having children, you've got options. >> would it be fair to say that you're actually stopping that biological clock from ticking? for a moment? >> well, we're freezing that reproductive potential in time. so, you know, if a 30-year-old freezes her eggs, she freezes her 30-year-old potential. >> that's important because as a woman gets older, the quality of her eggs diminishes, making it harder to get pregnant, and many experts would suggest if you're a woman who wants to wait to have kids, you should freeze your eggs in your late 20s or
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early 30s. so how did i meet him? i was 40 years old and wanted to get pregnant and it was under his watchful eyes i was blessed to have these beautiful twins through traditional ivf. it was during my pregnancy he told me about vitrification. >> hope, not a promise. it's an option, not a requirement. it allows women to be more thoughtful about how they conduct their lives and how they think about their fertility. >> does it tie in at all -- >> women like 37-year-old katherine cooper. >> the information i'm looking for -- >> reporter: who has a high-power job in new york's banking industry. with two sisters and a really tight family, katherine knew she wanted a family. she also wanted a career, baby would have to wait.
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how do you balance your want for a baby but also your want to have a really successful career? >> the balance part is tricky. so obviously i really want to have a baby, i just don't want to have one right now. >> reporter: so her gynecologist sent her to dr. griffo. >> he brought up the fact that my fertility was going to decline rapidly over the next several years, and that i should consider freezing my eggs. >> she decided to take the leap. but it took three months to get an appointment, then katherine started the process to harvest the most eggs she could, a daunting series of hormone shots. >> once i had everything all mixed up, i'm looking at this needle thinking i know that's the wrong needle, it's so big, and i decided to insert it half way and hoped for the best. >> it wasn't easy?
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>> no, it wasn't easy. >> after two weeks after ramping up egg production, katherine's lucky number was 13. >> 13 chances at having a baby? >> yeah, sure. i think the odds are pretty good if i choose to use them. plus it's not as if i'm doing this because i'm infertile. i don't know i have fertility problems. i'm doing it to create options in my life. >> 13 options frozen in time until katherine says go. >> so considering the costs, the shots, what it felt like. it was not an easy process. was it worth it? >> completely worth it. no doubt in my mind worth it. >> i was thinking about this, you're like the ultimate ladies' man. you have gotten so many women pregnant. >> well, you know -- >> have you ever thought of it that way? >> no, other people have.
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>> but actually, dr. griffo is very old-fashioned. he hopes his patients like katherine can conceive naturally, but if they can't, he's at least been able to freeze a little bit of hope. >> we've been talking a lot about women, but men are part of the equation too. in fact, half of all infertility among couples is caused by the man. but there's a simple procedure you've probably never heard of. and it can enhance a man's fertility rate by 70%. we'll show it to you next. this is an rc robotic claw.
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my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪
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couples is caused by the male. but dr. sanjay gupta does have one story of a man who wanted to tell his story. he thought he'd never be able to be a dad. but he wouldn't take no for an answer. >> reporter: steven and lindsey always dreamed of becoming parents. >> we both knew we wanted to have kids right from the get go. it was important to both of us. >> reporter: they got married, bought a house and eventually started trying for a family. lindsey was in her 20s and totally healthy. yet after nearly a year, they hadn't gotten pregnant. >> it honestly didn't really cross my mind for 11 of those 12 months that it would be a male issue. but finally, you know, i said well maybe you should go to the doctor. >> reporter: dr. michael whit says male infertility is more common than couples realize. >> one of the biggest problems
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is deciding how big of a problem it is. >> how big is it? >> well, probably affects about 12% of men in general, but all couples who struggle with infertility, probably half of those there's probably a male contribution. >> reporter: it could be a myriad of factors, genetics, irregular chromosomes, obesity, drug use, even smoking. for some men it's as a result of something as simple as an undetected cluster of veins. >> when someone has a cluster of veins, how is that making a man inferti infertile? >> just like in your leg, you can can fix it. and about 80% of cases, you get improved production and essentially can enhance fertility rates about 60%, 70%. >> a lot of people probably don't know that. if that's the problem, a high likelihood it can be treated. >> reporter: infertility caused by obesity, drug use, and smoking can also be reversed in many men. and even more complicated cases
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like steven, a diagnosis of male infertility is not necessarily the final word. when he went to see his doctor, steven was given devastating news. >> walked in the office and he said you have cancer. you have cancer in the left testicle, you may have it in the right testicle and you'll almost certainly never father children. >> he fought to save his life and fertility. he froze sperm, have surgery remove a testicle, underwent chemotherapy and went to an additional sperm extraction all in the hopes of some day becoming a dad. >> you try to visualize and you try -- you know, you just try to will it to happen. and it's, you know, at some point it's out of your control. >> using steven's extracted sperm and lindsay's eggs, they were able to create embryos that the couple used during an ivf cycle. today steven is cancer free and he and his wife are 33 weeks pregnant with twin boys. >> just to see her belly growing
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and, you know, it's cliche but seeing the heartbeats on the ultrasound, it blows your mind. you can't believe they're in there. >> he hopes other men will hear his story and realize that for male infertility patients like him, there is some hope. >> i think here is better. you just heard about a number of recent breakthroughs in the field of infertility. i want to bring back dr. andy toledo whose clinic has been on the forefront of a lot of this research that's helped so many couples become parents. as we look into the future, is there a method or methods you're looking at that you're excited about down the road? >> yes, kyra, there are a lot of good things coming down the pike. genetics, particularly in the field of testing embryos is big. i think it's going to improve outcome because it's going to give women of older reproductive age a chance of having normal embryos that ultimately will result in pregnancy. and i think finally, the other
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big area that i'm excited about is in the area of what we call recepti receptivity. what is it about some women that everything looks right, everything's gone perfect and they don't get pregnant. and we believe it's probably the level of the lining of the uterus. there's something there, whether it's a missing protein or something. that's where i think we'll see a lot of focus research over the next couple of years. >> five years, ten years, 20 years down the road, will it be easier, you think, for a woman over 40 to have kids? >> if we can solve those issues and improve upon them, i think you're going to see many more women in this particular group be looking at a very happy outcome for those. >> great news. thanks. >> thank you for having me. every year, millions of couples are dealing with infertilit infertility. but thanks to these new methods, so many of them are having babies. i was one of them. so if you want to learn more
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