The big news item yesterday was the announcement that Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a reproductive biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University and his colleagues produced embryonic stem cells from a human clone they produced. Their study, Human Embryonic Stem Cells Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, was published in Cell. How they made a [...]

If you are one of the one -in -six or one-in-eight couples who want to be parents, but it’s not working for you, it’s time to get mad. There are two kinds of infertility, medical fertility – which is very treatable– and financial infertility which is a much more difficult problem. If you have a [...]

Today, March 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day, observed since 19o8!  See what your sisters are doing here and on Facebook. What’s the point of International Women’s Day? It’s a day to reflect on woman’s place in society. Do women have the same rights as men here in the US and everywhere? Well, in my [...]

The Affordable Care Act, also called “Obamacare” became the law of the land on March 23, 2010 and was upheld by a Supreme Court decision in June 2012. What impact, if any, will it have on the ability of infertility patients to pay for infertility treatments? It’s impact is not clear because it will affect [...]

The College of Reproductive Biology is a professional society associated with the American Association of Bioanalysts whose members include embryologists, andrologists and other ART professionals. Last week, members received this update about new Personhood Initiatives. Letter copied below: “Personhood Bill Introduced in  House of Representatives  Legislation that would give full legal rights to human zygotes [...]

For the last twenty years, I have been fairly obsessed with human fertility, both personally and professionally. Since 1995, I have been engaged in a profession that is clearly pro-life in that it seeks to solve the problem of human infertility, one patient at a time. I am also pro-choice. Those views are not opposites [...]

On this Presidential Inauguration Day, I think about where we are in this country and where we are going. It’s also the time of year to think about professional and personal goals for 2013. What can we do better? One of the professional goals I have is to try to make infertility treatments more effective [...]

On Jan. 7, 2013, in a move that pleased scientists who study embryonic stem cells, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case which called for prohibiting federal funding of embryonic stem cell research according to this Forbes magazine article.  The decision leaves intact President Obama’s 2009 executive order to fund embryonic stem cell research [...]

With the Fiscal Cliff dominating the political landscape for the foreseeable future, the issue of where we spend our limited tax dollars is going to be a topic of fierce debate. It seems timely to talk about pending infertility-related bills that have budget implications. The infertility support group Resolve has a webpage devoted to legislative [...]

I try to refrain from political posts because I know patients want to know about technical aspects of IVF, not my political opinions–and by now– the day before the election- even the most partisan are sick to death of politics. But the main reason I bother with this blog –which generates no income and costs [...]