A reader recently asked me how to identify the best egg freezing clinic in the US. Specifically, she wanted to find an ART lab or egg bank that would freeze her own eggs for future use. It turns out that this simple request does not have a simple answer because neither the CDC nor another [...]

As though infertile women (and men) didn’t have enough to be anxious about, the New York Times reported on a new study that has scientifically confirmed the obvious, that stress can disrupt the reproductive system and make conception more difficult. There are an amazing number of articles, opinions and business opportunities regarding stress and infertility. [...]

The results of a semen analysis can vary from test to test. Sometimes this variation is clinically significant, sometimes it’s not. That’s why most doctors will order at least two semen analyses to corroborate the first result. What is clinical significance? A semen analysis is a estimate of the amount (sperm concentration) of sperm in [...]

This post probably falls under the “too much information” category for most of my readers but for those of you who like to look under the hood of your IVF lab, these are some of the things you might see in a good IVF lab. Teamwork and Collegiality: A good IVF team meshes a diverse [...]

You might have seen the recent articles about the first baby born in Hawaii from an egg that was previously vitrified, stored, warmed and  fertilized using ICSI.  Although exciting, especially for the proud parents and perhaps Hawaii, this birth is not the first baby born from a previously frozen egg. You might be surprised to [...]

Finding out how much it costs to provide a health care service should be fairly straightforward. You business accounting  majors and economists feel free to chime in here. If you have a service to sell and you are pricing that service, don’t you typically need to know what it costs you to provide the service [...]

Paying for infertility services, especially high tech options like IVF is a big deal for most patients. How can IVF be made more affordable? The infertility support group Resolve has put together some useful links on its page Making Treatment Affordable. Under The Costs of  Infertility Clinics, they report the results of their survey of [...]

IVF should be a covered benefit for everyone in the United States. Why? Lowering the out-of-pocket cost of IVF promotes healthy pregnancies for moms and babies. Ask any obstetrician and they will tell you that a singleton pregnancy is more likely to have a healthy outcome compared to twins, triplets or more. Now I know [...]