Our mind-body connection is beautiful but also fragile. In order to protect it, we have to decide whose opinions or comments we listen to and what to do with the negative ones that cross through our doorway unprompted. We don’t always have control over what we see or hear — hello, Internet — so for those moments especially, here’s a list of positive quotes that can help you hold onto what’s important on the hardest days.  When you want to appreciate your body…  “This body had carried me through a hard life. It looked exactly the way it...

As one of the leading causes of infertility, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is regularly found at the center of reproductive health discussions.  According to the World Health Organization, PCOS is a common hormonal condition that affects approximately 8-13% of reproductive-aged women (although up to 70% of affected women remain undiagnosed worldwide). Specifically, PCOS is a metabolic disorder that occurs when the ovaries and adrenal glands produce a surplus of androgens (aka sex hormones).  PCOS can cause hormonal imbalances, irregular periods, excess androgen levels — which can present either as acne or excess hair growth on the face, chest,...

In the past few years, we’ve taken a good, hard look at the damaging effects of diet culture. For those of us who grew up in the Diet-Coke-and-100-calorie-snack-pack landscape of the ‘90s, then began navigating the “clean eating” movement as young adults, it feels almost impossible to dethrone those diet culture…but we’re finally getting somewhere. And now, it’s time we get equally clear about dismantling our long-held ideas about exercise. Exercise used to be viewed as something you had to do, especially if you’d been “bad” with your eating habits. It was meant to be challenging...

As someone who spent two full years trying to conceive a third child via in vitro fertilization (IVF), I’ll be the first person to admit that I never thought secondary infertility would happen to me. I conceived my 5-year-old twins during my second frozen embryo transfer cycle, with 9 embryos left in the freezer. Since IVF had worked for us before, I didn’t think we would have unexpected challenges when we started trying for another baby. I couldn’t have been more wrong.    Something else I was wrong about…that secondary infertility couldn’t be nearly as emotionally...

Have you ever wondered if your PMS symptoms are all in your head? If you’re simply “unmotivated” when you feel sluggish during your period? If you’re just imagining that your libido tends to tick up around the middle of your cycle? Here’s the reality: The reason you feel different — mentally, physically, and emotionally — during each phase of your menstrual cycle is probably not a product of your imagination or a fluke. In all likelihood, it comes down to hormones, which shift throughout a woman’s menstrual cycle. Those hormonal changes can affect your mood,...

If you’ve been struggling to start a family, are pursuing IVF, and have been diagnosed with endometriosis somewhere along the way, you may be left wondering what your best treatment option will be. Oftentimes, simply getting diagnosed with endo itself can be a long and treacherous road — one that leaves too many people feeling unheard, disbelieved, or wrestling with the medical trauma of having nobody to advocate for you but yourself. Once a patient has received an endometriosis diagnosis, it can feel like a breath of fresh air to just finally have an answer to your symptoms...

If you’re on the IVF rollercoaster, the wait after an embryo transfer is a part of the journey that can feel like it’s months long, even though the time frame is technically shorter than a spontaneous pregnancy, since the implantation process is sped along with IVF. By a full week after your transfer, you might be jumping out of your skin and can’t wait any longer, and you may be tempted to take a pregnancy test as early as day 7.  Let’s say the home test reads “not pregnant” at that seven-day mark…does that mean the...

If you asked a group of people affected by infertility to describe what it feels like, I imagine the word “isolating” would come up…a lot.  Even in 2024, when we are so much more aware of fertility issues than we’ve ever been before, when so many people are candidly opening up their own experiences, when communities devoted to the “infertility club” are forming online and IRL, the experience can still feel so deeply lonely. Part of that is because, while there are universal elements at work, everyone’s journey is so, so different. There is no roadmap....

It’s natural to be curious about all the different realities you may encounter during your trying-to-conceive journey. The deeper you get into trying to grow your family, the more you end up learning. Should you be on that path for a year or longer, your next round of questions may all come back to a single umbrella question — what is female infertility, and what causes it?  Dr. Michael Guarnaccia, the Medical Director at Pinnacle Fertility of New York, answered some of our big questions about female infertility, including some of the lead causes and how...

My journey to motherhood began in 2016 when I became pregnant with my son, Luke. I was fortunate to conceive easily and have a smooth pregnancy, until 21 weeks.  On Christmas Eve morning, I began bleeding, and we rushed to the hospital.  Our unimaginable pregnancy loss  I delivered our son, Luke, on Christmas morning at nearly 22 weeks gestation. To this day, we are unsure if the loss was due to an incompetent cervix, preterm labor, or a bit of both. Several weeks later, I was hemorrhaging and it turned out that I had retained placenta,...