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 [...]

In Mississippi, the Supreme Court approved a ballot initiative that, if successful, would define a fertilized egg as a human being. Specifically, if approved by the voters, the new law reads“The term ‘person’ or ‘persons’ shall include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.” I blogged about this [...]

My posts have been fewer lately but but this morning I found a patient comment that tugged me back to the blog. On an old post, Wishing for a Happy Father’s Day, Elizabeth left me this comment and question: “I miss your insightful posts. Here’s a post idea: IVF after pregnancy. Need to wait awhile [...]

If you ever thought that you were alone in suffering with infertility, the many community events occurring this week (April 24-30) during National Infertility Awareness Week should reassure you that you are far from alone. You have millions of sisters and brothers out there who are walking somewhere along the same infertility road, just starting, [...]

I don’t usually comment on obstetrical issues because I am not a physician and patients should always talk to their obstetrician, not their embryologist (!),  about pregnancy-related questions. However, I have written numerous posts about donor egg and donor embryo as useful ART methods for women to conceive and evidence continues to accumulate that using [...]

PETA , aka. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has announced a new give-away in which one ‘lucky winner” who recently neutered their pet can win a free human vasectomy, in honor of National Infertility Awareness Week. Not surprisingly, this cavalier use of infertility awareness week to hawk elective sterilization offended many infertility patients, [...]

Dear Reader, Until now,  I have avoided commercializing this site. No “Donate” button. No Ads. No product endorsements. Except for one. I am pleased to announce the publication of my new “baby”, the e-book Fertility Lab Insider. I have compiled and reorganized the best posts into sections and chapters and added new material. Chapters in [...]

It’s that time of year again when legislatures turn to reproductive issues which by their nature tend to be controversial.  Reproductive rights issues are especially controversial because every individual looks at these issues from their own perspective, based on their own diverse cultural and/or religious upbringing and life experiences. Because there is no one perspective [...]

People have been talking about DIna Roth Port’s article in the February 9, 2011 Huffington Post called Infertility: the disease we need to start talking about. According to her article,  infertility is not mentioned in high school health education classes and is barely mentioned in classes for  medical school students and yet afflicts one in [...]

You may wonder what national healthcare reform will mean to you and your family. Although a few of the simpler reforms have come to pass, such as letting parents keep their adult children on their health insurance longer, most of the reforms have not gone into effect. It will take six years until all the [...]