I am a clinical embryologist, a position that has held the highest place of honor among the many accomplishments I have achieved throughout my career. I also know first-hand the pain, emptiness, and emotional anguish that comes from not being able to build the family you desperately want when you want it. As the person behind-the-scenes in the IVF lab, I can’t describe the profound happiness that comes from being there at the very beginning of your family. From literally choosing the genes that will become your living child and placing those resulting embryos into your...

As a Reproductive Urologist, I specialize in treating male patients who want to get their partner pregnant or preserve their fertility. Even though men are 50% of the fertility equation, the topic of male fertility is not discussed nearly enough or as thoroughly as female fertility. So, how do you know when to get your male partner's fertility tested? 5 Signs It's Time to Get Your Guy Checked 1. You’ve made the decision to try to get pregnant. When couples decide to try to conceive, it’s time for both partners to get their fertility evaluated. For the female, this...

Did you know that male fertility issues are responsible for approximately half of all cases of infertility? The good news is that often, sperm health can be improved with lifestyle changes such as regular exercise, a healthier diet, and supplement intake. Men’s prenatal supplements can also “fill in the gaps” to help support healthy sperm production, hormone health, and overall male fertility.   If you and your partner are trying to conceive, if you have received abnormal semen analysis results, or if you are going through fertility treatment such as IUI or IVF, it might be time...

Nearly three-quarters of men who are trying to conceive or thinking about starting a family have no knowledge of their sperm quality, according to a 2021 survey.  People with a menstrual cycle get a monthly message from their bodies that can alert them to any fertility “red flags.” Irregular, very light, or heavy menstrual cycles can all be signs of hormone imbalance, ovulation disorders, or endometriosis, all of which can affect a person’s chances of conceiving. People with sperm, on the other hand, get no such signals. In many cases, men don’t have a reason to...

I will never forget the day I was sitting in my therapist's office, telling her how poorly my relationship with my husband was bearing the weight of infertility. She locked eyes with me and said, “What happens if you get the baby you want so badly, but your marriage doesn’t survive as a result?" My heart started pounding. I felt my all-consuming infertility anxiety screech to a halt in surprise. The reality at that moment was that I had let our struggle to conceive completely take over our lives. Everything else took a backseat to my...

While there’s no hack or trick that is guaranteed to get you pregnant, if you’re still trying to conceive ‘the old-fashioned way,’ there are quite a few changes you can make to your routine to give your odds a boost. In this article, we will be highlighting a few of the more non-traditional ways to boost fertility that might just be worth considering. 1. Using castor oil packs I had never heard of these ‘lil guys before starting my fertility journey. Around that time, I started attending a fertility yoga workshop where I first heard about castor...

These are things I hear every day from my patients: “I have never felt this sad and anxious," “If I see another pregnancy announcement on social media, I will scream," "Why doesn’t anyone including my partner seem to get it?" “What did I do to cause this?," “I feel that I have to attend this baby shower, but I just don’t want to go,” and “Infertility is all I ever think about; I can’t get it out of my mind." If you recognize any or even all of these thoughts, my guess is that you are...

It took my husband Brad and me two years to get on the same page when it came to our fertility treatment. Again…it took TWO YEARS to get alignment between two people. That’s the equivalent of having a hung jury for 730 consecutive days. Every day we would debate and discuss the individual costs, risks, merits, and advantages of IUIs versus IVF versus adoption versus living child-free. And every day, our feelings would subtly shift like tectonic plates. Today, three years after we started trying to conceive, I can say we are 100% aligned with our...

The day I began miscarrying was the hardest day of my life. Yes, I say ‘began’ because most miscarriages take multiple days to pass. The millions of women globally who have miscarried know this all too well. Our vibrant and supportive fertility community constantly reminds us that miscarriages are not our fault. My miscarriage, on the other hand, was my fault, and, as much as my family and friends tell me to not think of it that way, I always will. Our IUI failed days before my 32nd birthday. Having been diagnosed with severe male factor...

The science of making babies started back in the 1930s, and the first reproductive endocrinology practice was founded in 1939 at Johns Hopkins. While the field continues to advance, many individuals find themselves without answers or new technologies to help them conceive.  When I first started working in the field of reproductive endocrinology and infertility back in 2013, PGS testing was relatively new, and not many patients went with this option when pursuing IVF. By the time I left the clinic in 2016, ERA cycles were coming out. Since then, PGS, ERA cycles, mini IVF and...