Fertility

Infertility and the Microbiome

April 2018 is the 4th International Fertility Symposium in Vancouver, BC.    I have attended every conference as they are filled with valuable nuggets so I can be better prepared for the toughest fertility cases.      Not to mention Vancouver is the most beautiful large city I ever visited and the food is incredible. A study was released just a couple of months ago that showed altered gut flora in a significant number of women that had trouble conceiving.  However, correlation does not equal causation.    It may be that the women with fertility challenges have other immune challenges […]

Balanced Translocation and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss

About 9 months ago a couple came to me because they heard that Chinese Medicine and acupuncture can help with recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL).  They had 4 miscarriages – all after 12 weeks and one in the third trimester which is heartbreaking.  They were both in their early 30’s and a complete workup  did not reveal any clear patterns on why she was not succeeding in carrying to term.   Her menstrual cycle was like clockwork with no complaints. He had perfect sperm parameters. (although sperm testing alone is almost useless for a male – epigenetic changes need to be measured with […]

More Sex Increases Chances of Pregnancy

More frequent sex increases the chances of a successful pregnancy. Makes sense. But not for the reasons you think! Two newly published research articles discuss studies of heterosexual intercourse outside the fertile window and come to similar hypotheses. The results showed that couples having intercourse outside the fertile window increased their chances of pregnancy compared to heterosexual couples who abstained from sex when it was not the woman’s most fertile time of the month. The researchers’ theory is that intercourse causes a shift toward a more pregnancy-friendly immune response. In the simplest terms, your immune system has two types of immunity: cellular immunity (Th1), […]

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Plastic Endocrine Disruptors and Fertility

It has been known for some time that chemicals in plastics and other household items can disrupt the endocrine system and cause deleterious health effects.   In a new analysis that examined more than 1,000 different studies, researchers from the Endocrine Society are expressing new concerns about human exposure of these everyday endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). While this is a big deal for all of us, it’s especially concerning for women trying to conceive. Some EDCs are associated with abnormal puberty, irregular cyclicity, reduced fertility, infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, fibroids, pre-term birth, and adverse birth outcomes. Your endocrine system is the signaling […]

New IVF Procedure Can Improve Implantation Rate

Check out this article about new technology that can determine the most optimal time to implant an embryo. Some Reproductive Endcrinologist and researchers believe that some reasons why embryo transfers are not successful is because the uterine lining is not ready to receive. This article talks about how new technology can help time the transfer when there is an optimal uterine environment. It is not ready for prime time as it is costly and involves a uterine biopsy and gene analysis. However IVF technology is advancing at a rapid pace therefore should this prove to improve outcomes in just 1 […]

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