Your egg quantity is also known as your ovarian reserve. It’s not quite the same thing as egg quality. But when you have a good ovarian reserve, you most likely will have some good quality eggs in there too. You were born with millions of immature eggs. Most of the immature eggs will be housed… Read more »
“How does my menstrual cycle reflect the quality of my eggs?”
As you may know, there is no one perfect test for egg quality. So we look at a host of different variables. One of the most helpful is your menstrual cycle. Each menstrual cycle is governed by the growth of a single egg. This is how it works: over the course of 10-14 days the… Read more »
Does my sleep really impact my fertility?
There isn’t a clear link to fertility and sleep patterns. There is no one test that we can order to tell you that you are (or more likely, are not) getting enough healthy sleep. Like diet and exercise, it’s one of those things we all know we should be doing better at. But it is… Read more »
How can I improve my egg quality?
Wondering what you can do to improve your egg quality? Here are some tips we share with our patients: Lifestyle When looking to egg quality, the first thing we suggest is that you consider lifestyle. To some degree, maximizing egg quality is predicated on maximizing your overall health, and the quickest and surest route for… Read more »
How long does it take to improve my sperm quality?
It takes about 72 days for sperm to mature from stem cells to fully-functioning sperm, so any changes you make need to be consistent for about three months. You can talk to your doctor to find out whether HCG, clomiphene, letrozole, and rFSH preparations will be helpful for you. Vitamin therapy is one of the… Read more »
How do I manage hypertension before, during and after pregnancy?
Part of overall health is healthy living, including a good diet, good sleep patterns, well maintained weight, a healthy approach to stress and good management of blood pressure. If you have difficult to control blood pressure, lifestyle changes alone may not be enough and medications become necessary. We need to make sure that the medications… Read more »
My partner and I are just beginning our fertility journey. How do we create the best care plan for us?
A Care Plan is probably the most important thing you can have in your fertility journey. Of course, we all hope that we won’t have a “journey”. We hope that we’ll achieve pregnancy quickly, on our own, like so many friends and neighbours and co-workers seem to do. When it isn’t easy – when… Read more »
I’m supposed to have a full bladder for my ultrasound/procedure. But how full is too full? And what if I’m retroverted?
First, let’s quickly review why we ask for a full bladder. When you’re lying on your back, your uterus either tilts up towards your belly button (anteverted), or back towards your spine (retroverted). Most women are anteverted. Between your uterus and your abdomen is the bladder. So, when you have a full bladder, it tends… Read more »
What are the recent developments in implantation? (Part Two: Embryo grading)
This post is part one of a series where we will discuss how embryos, the uterus and overall health impact implantation. We judge embryo quality in three ways: the number of embryos present, embryo grading, and PGS. In this post, we’ll talk about embryo grading. Stretched over the first 96 hours of development, we… Read more »
I have morning sickness. How do I know what’s normal and when it’s serious?
Everyone gets morning sickness. It’s just part of pregnancy. It’s normal, right? Well, not necessarily. The majority of pregnant women will experience some nausea or vomiting at some point in their pregnancy. For some women, it’s mild and doesn’t last very long. The causes of morning sickness is generally assumed to be caused by hormonal… Read more »