That's right - March is Endometriosis Awareness Month. Most people probably didn't know that this month was designated to spread the word about the prevalence of endometriosis, but chances are you or someone you know suffers with this disease. 7 million women and teenage girls suffer with endometriosis, but yet it often goes undiagnosed until a woman struggles with infertility. In fact, endometriosis is the leading cause of female infertility, but certainly is not the only manifestation of the problems associated with endometriosis. Those suffering deal with often severe pelvic pain, as well as heavy and irregular menstrual periods, lower back pain, and diahrrea and/or constipation associated with the menstrual cycle. The scarring of endometriosis… [more]

I recently heard a question regarding the timing of intercourse after (or before) an IUI. Since we went straight to IVF, I had never really thought about the need (and apparent benefit) for scheduled relations, but it makes sense that you would want to try to ensure that you take advantage of ovulation. It seems that the most common recommendation is to have sex shortly after the procedure to both try to make sure you have correct timing and to "save" the "better" sperm for the IUI rather than not following the guidelines to refrain from ejaculation for 48 hours. In fact, some clinics actually do try to use this logic by scheduling two consecutive… [more]

I've never been shy in these posts about admitting that I enjoy indulging in an adult beverage now and then. I even think that in my mind I connected the normalcy of having a cocktail with something I deserved to have because I was struggling to conceive. Nevertheless, it is often recommended that women who are trying to get pregnant abstain from drinking alcohol and for many women attempting to have a baby means not imbibing at all. Until recently I always kind of thought that people who do not drink at all while enduring fertility treatments were going above and beyond. I thought it was admirable that they were literally doing everything they could to… [more]

It seems that I regularly hear about people who "thought" they were infertile and thus didn't use birth control, only to find out that they can indeed conceive when they learn they are pregnant. I was at the opposite end of the spectrum - I was diagnosed with PCOS, lost a fallopian tube to ectopic, and was basically told that it was IVF or nothing, but I still thought that I was going to just get pregnant naturally somehow, some way. It did in fact take IVF to get me pregnant, and I'm ok with that, especially since my two awesome children are the result. I don't want my kids, though, to have to go through the… [more]

It's a subject I have "talked" about in the past, but the frequency of the occurrence warrants mentioning again. Spotting or bleeding in early (or sometimes even throughout) pregnancy happens to approximately 20 percent of pregnant women. There is some indication that it is even more frequent in women who have had infertility treatments due to irritation, over-stimulation, or problems that already existed that contributed to conception troubles. Regardless, women who are pregnant and experience bleeding should call their doctor and be examined - not only for peace of mind (which is often what it is when it is determined that the reasons for bleeding are benign) but also because sometimes, unfortunately, bleeding is a sign of… [more]

As I sit here and type with my computer on my lap, I realize that it is hypocritical to warn men against doing the same. The reason, though, is that heat has a negative effect on men's fertility and men trying to conceive are cautioned against overuse of laptops actually on their laps, as well as being in hot tubs, saunas, standing over hot stoves for extended periods of time, or wearing tight underwear. Male factor infertility can often be attributed to heat, but not because of sweat and heat inducing activities as much as varicoceles. Varicoceles are the most common cause of male infertility with as many as 15 percent of men affected. Varicoceles are… [more]

I have always been somewhat antagonistic. I've always been the one who, if told not to do something, wants to do it even more and usually has no willpower whatsoever to abstain. I'm sure I was a miserable teenager for my parents - I was always challenging boundaries and testing limits. They would tell me not to smoke, or hang around a certain person, or stay out late and inevitably I would do all three. Reverse psychology was ineffective, too, which means that throughout the years I have picked up some pretty nasty bad habits. Luckily, common sense has for the most part prevailed, and I don't often act out as outrageously as… [more]

It is a common occurrence in the world of infertility for women to begin home testing for pregnancy well before a true positive or negative would be expected. Many women even take the test when they know they have HCG in their system from injected medications like Ovidrel or Pregnyl. The hope here is that you see a positive when you know you still have hcg, you test until you get a negative when the hcg is apparently gone, and then you continue to take tests until you see another positive that can now be trusted. Many times this incessant testing can go on through receiving the beta results, either waiting for that… [more]

I recently read an interesting article - click here to read it - about the benefit of rocking embryos. Rocking, in this sense, means trying to recreate the natural movement of a woman's body as the embryo makes its way through the fallopian tubes. In the study, the cell numbers and pregnancy rates increased when the embryos were rocked during an IVF cycle. They found that after four days, the embryos placed in the rocking device were noticably healthier. I read this thinking that it was a fabulous discovery in terms of improving pregnancy rates via IVF, but it also made me think about the premise. The study seemed to set… [more]

If you followed every piece of advice about what you should and should not do during the “two-week wait” or when trying to conceive, you would probably be relegated to bed rest for the duration. For most people, that is neither feasible, nor practical and honestly, will probably not have an effect one way or the other. I admit that I am a bit of a follower when it comes to these things, though, and generally did what others suggested if the reasons for not doing it made sense to me. For that reason, I thought I would present a top ten list of sorts of things that I was told to avoid and how I handled… [more]