Recently one of my readers had a question that I think many patients who go through IVF may have. She wanted to understand what blastocyst grading means in terms of embryo quality and then, obviously the implications for her  chances of pregnancy. Her question was: ” I just had two expanded blastocysts transferred on day [...]

Ever wondered what your embryo was up to during the five days it spent in the IVF incubator? Well, here’s a beautiful time-lapse video of embryo development from pronuclear stage (when fertilization is determined) to the blastocyst stage (when the embryo is implantation-ready). One of my most popular posts is about the progression of embryo [...]

One of my readers asked me my opinion of the sperm DNA fragmentation index or DFI. The value of any clinical test depends on a number of factors. Is the test relatively easy to perform or is it subject to exceptional end user skill and ideal test conditions? Some research lab tests don’t translate well [...]

Newsweek’s cover this week had an adorable baby with the headline, “You got your sperm where? How to get pregnant, fast, cheap -and in public“. Wow, talk about an eye grabber. In this article you meet a 40 year old virgin who calls himself a “donorsexual” and gives his sperm away (in a cup) to [...]

Most couples struggling with infertility are presented with the results of a semen analysis report at some point in their journey. The male partner produces a sample, usually by masturbation, either at home or at the clinic and the semen sample is analyzed under the microscope. Most people are familiar with sperm count, semen volume [...]

Infertility is too often thought of as a “woman’s” problem, but  the truth of the matter is that without sperm to tango with, the egg is pretty insufficient to make a baby. The good news for men is that today’s male infertility toolbox contains more diagnosis and treatment tools than what was available in their [...]

Exceptionalism, defined as, “The condition of being exceptional or unique”  is a wonderful thing. Right? We love and reward the exceptional athlete, scholar or leader. But exceptionalism is a double-edged sword because of the second part of the definition,”The theory or belief that something does not conform to a pattern or norm,” can be problematic. [...]

Preferring a child of one gender or another is as old as sex itself. Old wives tales abound of various methods to ensure that your child is a boy (or a girl).  For prospective parents, determining your child’s gender was believed to be dependent on what you ate, what you drank, what positions you used [...]

The 8.9 M earthquake in Japan last Friday (March 11, 2011) and subsequent tsunami created extensive havoc in the northeastern port city of Sendai and caused hundreds, perhaps even thousands of deaths. The exact toll in lives and property is not yet known. The earthquake was strongly felt just south in Tokyo and resulted in [...]

In 2009, Ochsner Health Systems, in Louisiana decided to close its in vitro fertilization program because of multiple egregious mistakes in the embryology lab which resulted in making embryos from 15 women unusable. The errors were attributed solely to the embryologist who was not a hospital employee, but a contractor. The errors were two fold: [...]