IVF
IVF
As more and more couples turn to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to start or expand their families, concerns have been raised about a possible link...
The dreaded two-week wait. You know the drill: you've timed everything just right, you've done all of the necessary preparations, and now it's a...
Using a donor gamete (egg, sperm, or embryo) can be overwhelming. Four years after my husband and I decided to adopt two embryos, one of which is now our three-year-old son, I still have questions. Maybe some would have been answerable. Perhaps they were, and still are, unknown to the genetic donors. I don’t know. The path to parenthood has many possible roads, and, for many of us, a lot of them are not clearly marked. We often go into this process confused, scared, uneducated, and with far more questions than answers. For me, the biggest...
So you’ve decided to do pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) on your embryos, and now that you’ve gotten the results back you find out some of your embryos are mosaics. You’ve heard of aneuploid and euploid embryos before, but what is a mosaic embryo? Can mosaics be transferred? Let’s take a step back for a second. What is a mosaic embryo? A euploid embryo is normal, and all of the cells in the embryo have the right number of chromosomes (46). An aneuploid embryo is abnormal, and all of its cells have a different number...
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...
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...
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...
One summer day at work I received a call from my husband who had recently been diagnosed with testicular cancer. He had just met with his oncologist, who advised him to bank his sperm before having surgery to remove a germ cell tumor. He had a bit of reluctance in his voice and asked, “Do you think I need to do this?” At age 26, we didn’t have plans for a family right away. I remember stepping outside my office building for some privacy and saying, “Come on, just do it and we can figure...