Chronic Prostatitis: Can It Affect My Sperm?
And how do I even know if I have chronic prostatitis? Presence of a bacterial infection in the male or female genital tract is detrimental to sperm migration. Bacteria in semen will not decrease the quantity but will definitely affect the sperm quality and motility. During our initial clinical evaluation of an infertile couple, we make […]
Oh no! Elevated FSH Levels? Can I Ever Have a Baby?
FSH levels can predict your prognosis for pregnancy. “My FSH is 18. Is it the end? Am I about to go into menopause?” “My doctor says I have advanced ovarian aging for my actual age.” “Will my elevated FSH cause hot flashes next week?” “Can I ever have a baby?” These questions may arise in […]
Can a Surrogate Keep the Baby? The Ground Breaking Court Decisions That Answer This Question
This is a worry for many people who are exploring this path: can a surrogate keep the baby? A couple of decades ago, there were some ground-breaking court decisions that make surrogacy a much less worrisome avenue to pursue. In 1980, Noel Keane wrote the surrogacy contract that would prove to be important in the court […]
How Smoking Harms Fertility
We all know that smoking is bad for our health. But now you can blame Dad. Women who smoke do not conceive as efficiently as nonsmokers. Infertility rates in both male and female smokers are about twice the rate of infertility found in nonsmokers. Misao Fukuda, M.D. and others at the M&K Health Institute in […]
Answering 4 Questions about Surrogacy
What is surrogacy? Surrogacy is the arrangement by which a woman conceives, carries and delivers a child for another couple or individual. This woman is known as a surrogate mother or a gestational carrier. The gestational carrier enters into a legal arrangement that declares she is not the mother of the child she is bearing, […]
DHEA: 1 Way to Help your Ovaries Be the Best They Can Be
Many of our patients have asked us about DHEA. Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a naturally-occurring hormone that is produced by the adrenal gland. It can be considered simplistically to be a vitamin for the ovaries. Its primary function is to produce estrogen and testosterone. Recently, these supplements have been used in the treatment of premature ovarian […]
IVF Stress: Monitoring in Your Hometown Helps IVF Patients Reduce Stress
IVF Stress – we want to help! We love our patients! We understand how stressful a diagnosis of infertility is and we do everything we can make the process as low-stress as possible. One way we do this is by letting patients who live out of town have their monitoring done by a doctor’s office […]
The Antral Follicle Count: 1 Measure of Ovarian Reserve & Predicting the Outcome of IVF
Antral follicle count is one way to predict ovarian reserve. Chronological age and ovarian reserve are generally parallel. However, this can vary enormously. The number of follicles, each containing one egg, which are available in the ovarian “pool” or reserve relates to the chance of success of in vitro fertilization (IVF). These numbers decline with […]
National Infertility Awareness Week – Why Focus on It for a Whole Week?
In recent years, the focus of National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) has been to change the conversation surrounding infertility – to address the misconceptions, stigma and silence that accompany the medical diagnosis of infertility. National Infertility Awareness Week April 21-27, 2019 is recognized by health organizations, clinics and doctors across the country each April. NIAW […]
What You Need to Know about AMH Testing and Ovarian Reserve
AMH testing helps us predict how a woman will respond during an IVF cycle. Patients who are deferring their childbearing now have the AMH test to assess their ovarian reserve. IVF success declines with chronological age, a fact which is well known. Women who have low response also have low outcomes, despite their chronological age. […]
