How Do You Know When Ovulation Is Over?
Predicting when ovulation starts is one thing, but trying to tell when it's over is an entirely different challenge. For some of us, the start of ovulation is obvious – maybe you get cramps, a little bit of bloating, some cravings, and the inexplicable urge to buy a dozen baby onesies, but what about when it's all over? When is it time to close the blinds on your fertility window and resume your regularly scheduled programming? Fear not if you're tired of playing the ovulation guessing game with your body. There are ways to pinpoint...
How Long Will a Pregnancy Test Show Positive After a Chemical Pregnancy?
Navigating a pregnancy loss can be difficult, no matter how early in the pregnancy it has occurred. Chemical pregnancies are miscarriages that occur before the fifth week of pregnancy, and they can be just as distressing as any other type of pregnancy loss. According to the American Pregnancy Association, these early miscarriages are called "chemical" pregnancies because the pregnancy hormone hCG can be detected in the urine or blood, but the fetus cannot yet be seen on an ultrasound. Often, a person will have a positive home urine pregnancy test, only to have period-like (or...
Why Are We Still Asking People When They’re Going To Have a Baby?
When I was unable to watch Netflix’s Love is Blind finale in real time, I dreaded the inevitable spoilers I’d see on social media the next day. But instead of spoilers, all I saw was criticism of the show and one of its hosts, Vanessa Lachey. Specifically, social media users were complaining about the host’s invasive questioning of each of the show’s married couples' plans for having “babies”. Days later, I finally watched the finale and saw exactly what everyone was upset about: At several points throughout the reunion-style finale, Lachey mentioned that she was...
Can Eating Certain Foods Reduce the Risk of Miscarriage?
Let’s make one thing very clear: If you’ve suffered a miscarriage, it is not your fault. About 50 percent of miscarriages occur due to chromosomal abnormalities, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Typically, these chromosomal abnormalities are inevitable — and when other factors cause the miscarriage, they’re also typically far outside a person’s control (some other causes of miscarriage include uterine abnormalities or chronic health conditions). If you’ve experienced a miscarriage, it wasn’t because you drank coffee or exercised intensely or traveled, or had a glass of wine before you were pregnant....
Does Low Ovarian Reserve Mean Early Menopause?
For many people, diving into the world of infertility or fertility preservation comes with a lot of realizations about their own bodies and health — things they never even knew were possibilities. For example: Maybe you’re undergoing fertility testing to take control of your reproductive future…and you learn that you have a thing called diminished ovarian reserve. Terms like this — which sound like a foreign language to someone who hasn’t stepped into the world of reproductive medicine, but quickly become a part of your vocabulary as you navigate this world — can be frightening...
You Have Blocked Fallopian Tubes: Now What?
It probably goes without saying that having anything “blocked” in your reproductive organs doesn’t bode well for your fertility. For instance, your fallopian tubes play a major role in your ability to conceive, and if one or both are blocked it can lead to potential fertility issues. The fallopian tubes are two thin tubes that connect the ovaries to the uterus. In a typical menstrual cycle, during ovulation one of the ovaries releases an egg into one of the fallopian tubes, where it awaits fertilization from a sperm. The fertilized egg, or embryo, then moves...
What Can You Expect During a Transvaginal Ultrasound?
Many of us are familiar with abdominal ultrasounds: the cold gel, the wand being rubbed around on our torso, and the blurry images projected on the screen. While these are the more common ultrasounds typically performed, sometimes physicians need to order transvaginal ultrasounds for more detailed pictures — especially when it comes to our reproductive health and fertility. Rather than capturing images topically, transvaginal ultrasounds gather imaging using a probe inserted into the vaginal canal. Also known as endovaginal ultrasounds, this procedure uses an ultrasound probe inserted about 2 to 3 inches into your vaginal canal....
Supporting Your Partner Through Their Fertility Journey
Sponsored by Organon. Visit FertilityJourney.com to learn more. Photo of author and real-life IVF patient, Jennifer Palumbo. Jennifer Jay Palumbo is a writer, public speaker, infertility advocate, author of the blog “The 2 Week Wait,” and a proud IVF (in vitro fertilization) mom of 2 boys. This article is based on her own fertility journey. As someone who has personally struggled with infertility, I know firsthand just how stressful it can be. No one is ever fully prepared to manage the feelings and emotions that may come with the inability to conceive. My husband and...
What Should I Do if I Think I Have Endometriosis?
According to Fertility and Sterility, endometriosis affects 1 in 10 women. In addition, 25% to 50% of women who deal specifically with an infertility diagnosis have endometriosis. Unfortunately, symptoms are often missed or misdiagnosed completely. Making matters more complicated, endometriosis is sometimes mistaken for other conditions, such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) or ovarian cysts. It may also be confused with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which causes diarrhea, constipation, and abdominal cramping. In other cases, 20–25% of endometriosis patients are completely asymptomatic, also known as “silent endometriosis.” In recent years, several female celebrities such as Lena...
How I Knew It Was Time To Stop Fertility Treatments
My husband and I met in our late twenties. We are both the oldest children of big families and neither of us was particularly fixated on having kids. Instead, we spent an amazing ten years working and traveling. One of our first big experiences together was moving to London, and from there, we also lived and worked in Barcelona. In our late thirties, while we were living in New Zealand, we both felt the pressure of the biological clock's countdown but still remained ambivalent about having children. We talked about it a lot and always...