Fertility Consultation Appointment

After a brief initial discussion of your goals and concerns, Anne will email you medical history forms for each parent to complete in order to see if there is sufficient information to develop an applicable treatment plan. These forms will include lab testing values, and/or suggestions about which labs would be helpful to have based on your reported medical history.

There are many ways to get baseline lab tests if you have not had any. Getting these tests is vital to creating a meaningful treatment plan that will allow couples to maximize their fertility potential.

* If you have recent basal body temperature graphs, upload the last three months to www.fertilityfriend.com. Register for a free account at FertilityFriend from a desktop computer in order to record and share login and password with me. BBT graphs are very valuable for diagnostic purposes

Clinical experience has proven to me that there is almost never “unexplained infertility”!
It is more often that important comprehensive diagnostic labs have not been done.

For some couples, the right description of their situation is "SUBfertility", where everything truly does check out fine on the labs, but that there may be a few lifestyle situations ( for example high emotional stress levels, erratic schedules, and poor nutrition ) that are contributory to inhibiting conception.

Taking multiple rounds of fertility drugs without proof of NEEDING them subjects you to what might be unnecessary procedures that waste time, money, have detrimental side effects, and worst of all, leaves patients disheartened and feeling victimized.

The most economical and efficient path to fertility/pregnancy includes evaluation and correction as the FIRST steps.

Fertility optimization is best backed up by lab results, however, its not only lab tests, a careful look at lifestyle choices, including nutrition, exercise, supplementation, and state of mind are also of vital importance.

The discussion we have after I have evaluated your completed forms will give you a better understanding of how I can help you achieve your goal. It will also include what you can do to contribute to the process.

Facing the challenges of fertility issues takes a toll on one’s emotional well-being, including the health of the relationship, no matter which party (and frequently it is both) needs to improve their status.

Getting support from your partner is very important, along with both parties’ awareness of food and lifestyle issues that may be hijacking your success. Since a discussion about these factors, in particular around food is critical, it's suggested that both parties are informed on the reasons lifestyle or dietary recommnedations are suggested. Partners are always welcome to listen in on the review after your forms have been evaluated.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, and in a long term effort, it's important that everybody puts in their best effort in a team-like fashion.

If you have already completed a few rounds of drugs, or drugs with IUI’s, without success, I encourage new to take a break from this and allow me to re-evaluate their fertility potential in all aspects.

Suggestions may be made about additional lab work or monitoring during the iui cycle, in order to gauge your response, or lack thereof to these medicalized procedures. Treatment with acupuncture during the medicated cycle MAY help, but this is evaluated on a case by case basis. Overall success rates for IUI are LOW. This is FACT, so patients need to realistic about their expectations regarding such procedures. Check with your doctor to see what rate of success is documented in order to gain realistic perspective on this procedure. Correcting hormonal dysfunction, egg and sperm quality are important to do BEFORE resorting to IUI for BEST results.

It takes three menstrual cycles/90 days to improve egg quality, as a woman has three stages of eggs maturing inside her at any given time.

For men, sperm turnover time is 75 days. Since fertility drugs have cumulative negative side effects, some of them long term, it is my opinion that everything should be sorted out BEFORE using them!

After a consult appointment, many couples elect to take a break from these treatments in order to optimize their fertility potential, and then resume treatment with their doctor later, depending on their diagnosis.

If you are already in an IVF cycle, please refer to the IVF support page.