Infertility Issues - The Center for Fertility and Gynecology

At today's meeting at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana, The Motherhood Consortium was honored to have Dr. Marc Kalan and Dr. Nurit Winkler from The Center of Fertility and Gynecology speak on the issues of "fertility". Some of the important concepts were that there are some very distinctive signs of potential infertility that when noticed should prompt a woman wanting to have children to contact the center immediately. The sooner you are able to begin the process, the better your chances of success. At gestation, woman have the the most amount of eggs available to them and they diminish in amount and quality with each menstrual cycle. If you are planning pregnancy, the best timing would be to attempt within one to two days before ovulation. If there is a problem with regular menstruation, then blood tests will be take to test the ovaries for FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and E2 (Estradiol). The tubes will also be tested to see if there is blockage of some sort. Ultrasounds can be taken of the uterus to and another source of testing would be the sperm. Couples should seek treatments on a timely basis instead of trying on their own for a lengthy period without results nor treatment. They also spoke about Clomid, a pill that binds with the estrogen receptor and causes the hypothalamus to sense a lack of estrogen. This type of treatment has an 80% ovulation success rate and a 15% pregnancy rate. This is one of the ways they measure what might be causing infertility. Those who are ultimately candidates for IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) is as a result of a tubal factor, male factor, or unexplained infertility. IVF is the fertility treatment that has the highest success rate, requires close monitoring but is a higher risk of multiple pregnancies. They also spoke of "egg freezing" and other non-traditional reproduction, and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. such as egg donation, gestational surrogacy and testing for genetic disorders. One of the attendees who apparently was quite familiar with "The Center for Fertility and Gynecology" and the Doctors spoke very highly not only of their expertise in the field but also the unusual caring and nurturing qualities that they possessed.