What to Do When You Can't Get Pregnant: The Complete Guide to All the Options for Couples Facing Fertility Issues

by Daniel Potter, Jennifer Hanin

Overview

The complete guide to all the options for couples facing fertility issues, now revised and updated

Newsweek praised What to Do When You Can't Get Pregnant for guiding readers through "the medical maze" of infertility treatments. In this completely revised and updated edition, world renowned fertility expert Dr. Daniel A. Potter and journalist Jennifer Hanin have revised their step-by-step guide to walk readers through their best options for conception and birth. Updates include:

Advances in natural products for women
New supplements, medications, and treatment protocols
Advice from leading experts on all areas of infertility treatment
The latest in egg freezing, vitrification, gender selection, and genetic testing
The future of IVF and reproductive medicine

Drawing on the latest science, Potter and Hanin offer sound advice for choosing the right doctor, asking the right questions, and living a healthy, fertile lifestyle. Complete with advice on how to handle the frustrations of not being able to conceive, What to Do When You Can't Get Pregnant remains a couple's best guide to making informed decisions about fertility issues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738216928
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	11/26/2013
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Daniel A. Potter, MD, is a world-renowned reproductive endocrinologist and director of the internationally acclaimed Huntington Reproductive Center Medical Group in California. Dr. Potter is a frequent speaker at numerous hospitals, medical centers, and fertility centers and organizations, including The American Society for Reproductive Health, The American Infertility Association, The International Council on Infertility Information Dissemination, Inc., and Resolve Organization. An advocate for women's healthcare, Dr. Potter also serves an an attending physician at Women's Hospital in Los Angeles and as a medical director at the Anaheim Memorial Medical Center.

Jennifer Hanin, MA, is a freelance journalist and the mother of twin girls concieved through in vitro infertilization.

Pamela Madsen is the executive director of The American Fertility Association and the mother of two children concieved through in vitro fertilization.

Table of Contents

Foreword Pamela Madsen xv

Introduction xvii

Acknowledgments xxi

1 Are You Infertile? 1

What Is Infertility? 2

Why Is Infertility So Common? 4

What Has to Happen for Fertilization to Occur? 5

How Many Eggs Do You Have? 10

What Can We Do? 12

Worrying about Infertility 13

What Kind of Doctor Should You See? 14

Doctors Who Can Help 15

When Should You Seek a Subspecialist? 17

Communicating with Your Practitioner 18

Shopping for a Practice 19

Trusting Online Sources 20

Finding the Right Match 21

What Questions Should You Ask? 21

In an Eggshell 22

2 Your Fertility Workup 23

Discovering the Truth 23

The Male Evaluation 24

Semen Analysis 24

The Female Evaluation 27

Confirming Ovulation 28

Ovarian Reserve Testing 29

The Clomiphene Citrate Challenge Test (CCCT) 32

Miscarriages and Abortions 32

When Everything Looks Normal 33

When You've "Made the Cut" 34

Your Fertility Regimen 35

Fertility Myths 35

What about Financing? 37

Does Insurance Cover Anything? 38

Are Fertility Treatments Tax Deductible? 39

What Questions Should You Ask? 39

In an Eggshell 40

3 What Your Doctor Might Find in Men 41

Understanding Your Partner 41

Varicocele 44

Varicocele Repair Is Effective 46

Idiopathic Infertility 47

Considering Vasectomy Reversal 47

Collecting Sperm 50

Considering Freezing Sperm 53

Supplements That May Increase Male Fertility 53

What Questions Should You Ask? 53

In an Eggshell 54

4 What Your Doctor Might Find in Women 55

Ovarian Factors 57

Cervical Factors 61

Tubal Factors 63

Uterine Factors 64

Peritoneal Factors 66

What Questions Should You Ask? 69

In an Eggshell 69

5 Twelve Weeks to Maximize Your Fertility 71

Optimize Your Chances 72

Twelve-Week Fertility Program 72

Living a Fertile Lifestyle 73

Fertility Foods: Are They Real? 74

Fit Foods 74

Shrinking Your Waistline 77

What to Know about Exercise 77

Why Supplements Matter 78

Ideal Weight for Pregnancy 80

How Does BMI Affect Fertility? 81

Can Obesity Keep You Infertile? 81

Finding a Balance 82

Making the Commitment 82

Drugs that Decrease Fertility 83

Lifestyle Choices 84

Counteracting Stress 85

Why Do You Feel Like Everything Is Falling Apart? 85

Stress Management 85

Complementary Therapies 85

What If Nothing Seems to Work? 93

What Questions Should You Ask? 94

In an Eggshell 95

6 DIY or IUI? 97

Tossing the Pill 98

What about Natural Techniques? 99

Are You Ovulating? 100

Natural Fertility Forecasting 101

Gauging Your Cervical Mucous 103

Ovulation Predictor Kits 104

Fertility Monitors 105

Saliva Fertility Monitor 106

In-Home Sperm Tests 108

Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) 109

What to Know Before Going Low or High Tech 112

What Questions Should You Ask? 113

In an Eggshell 114

7 Supersizing Your Chances (Inducing Ovulation) 115

Natural Ovulation 115

What Is Ovulation Induction? 116

Superovulation 119

Risks of Ovarian Hyperstimulation 120

Multiple Births 122

Multifetal Pregnancy Reduction 124

Do Fertility Drugs Cause Cancer? 126

Fertility Medications 127

Administering Injections 130

Injections Made Simple 131

What Questions Should You Ask? 132

In an Eggshell 133

8 The Art of Art 135

What Is ART? 136

IVF 136

Your IVF Protocol 137

Preparing for Egg Retrieval 141

Retrieval Day 144

Fertilization: Creating an Embryo 146

ICSI: Reversing Male-Factor Infertility 147

Assisted Hatching: Cracking the Shell 149

Transfer Day 150

Picking Your Team 150

Its Time 152

Baby Rest 153

The Call 155

What If Your Cycle Fails? 156

What Questions Should You Ask? 157

In an Eggshell 158

9 Sometimes it Takes Four 159

What to Know about Third-Party Reproduction 159

When to Consider Sperm Donation 160

When to Consider Egg Donation 160

What You Need to Know about Egg Donation 162

Why Egg Donors Do What They Do 163

Selecting Your Egg Donor 165

Personalizing Your Donor 167

When to Consider Embryo Donation 167

When to Consider Surrogacy 168

What You Need to Know about Surrogacy 170

Why Do You Need Professional Guidance? 171

Your Professional Team 172

Why Do You Need a Contract? 174

What Screening Applies to Donors and Surrogates? 175

Why Use a Large Agency? 176

Why Surrogates Do What They Do 176

Why Is Matching So Important? 179

Selecting Your Surrogate 180

Understanding Everyone's Perspective 180

Does Your State Permit Surrogacy? 181

When to Reconsider Third-Party Reproduction 184

What Questions Should You Ask? 184

In an Eggshell 185

10 Preventing Relationship Meltdowns 187

Smoothing Out Relationship Kinks 187

Infertility Stressors 189

Understanding Your Emotional Realities 189

Avoid Playing the Blame Game 191

Know Your Comfort Quotient 192

Baby or Bust? 192

Avoiding Holiday Headaches 194

Communicating What Matters 195

Spicing Up Your Relationship 196

What Questions Should You Ask? 197

In an Eggshell 199

11 When to Consider Moving On 201

When Is It Time to Stop Trying? 201

Owning Your Decision 202

Devising a Game Plan 204

Closing the Door 205

Considering Adoption 205

Foster Parents 208

Child-Free Living 210

What Questions Should You Ask? 212

In an Eggshell 213

12 Buying More Time 215

A Frozen Morula Hatching Timeline 216

A Game Changer 217

A New Kind of Insurance 218

Stopping Your Biological Clock 218

Embryos on Ice 220

Reasons You May Want to Freeze Your Embryos 220

Frozen Embryo Transfer 222

Hormone Replacement Cycle 222

Stimulated Cycle 222

Natural Cycle 223

Freezing Sperm 223

Situations That May Require Sperm Freezing 224

What Questions Should You Ask? 224

In an Eggshell 225

13 Safeguarding Your Child 227

Family Balancing 227

Spotting an Imperfect Embryo 228

Genetics and Disease: A Brief Overview 228

Meeting Your Genetic Counselor 230

Does Genetic Testing Affect Embryos? 232

PGS: Counting Chromosomes-and More 232

What Are the Advantages of PGS? 236

Who Needs PGS? 236

PGD: Digging into the Genes 237

Who Needs PGD? 239

What Questions Should You Ask? 244

In an Eggshell 245

14 Designer Babies 247

Can You Trust Online Donor Websites? 248

Science Is Technology: A Historical Account 248

What Is a Designer Baby? 249

Kids A La Carte? 250

Bioengineered Babies 250

Blurring Origins 251

Treatment of Last Resort 252

Making Your Own Choice 252

What Questions Should You Ask? 253

In an Eggshell 253

15 To Tell or Not to Tell? 255

Conceived with Love 256

Truth or Consequences? 256

Making It Okay 257

Are There Benefits to Disclosure? 257

What Is the Appropriate Age to Tell Your Child? 259

Don't Give Blow-by-Blow Accounts 260

What to Say to Your Preschooler: Ages Three to Five 260

Interacting with Curious Minds: Ages Six to Ten 261

Discussions with Your Adolescent 262

What If You Want to Bring God into the Conversation? 262

What If My Child Finds Out by Accident? 262

Knowing When to Not Make a Big Deal 263

Making the Right Decision for Your Family 264

When to Withhold the Truth? 264

What Do Experts Recommend? 264

What Questions Should You Ask? 264

In an Eggshell 266

16 Where is Reproductive Medicine Heading? 267

Probable 268

Possible 276

Plausible 279

Ever-Changing Insurance Laws 286

Can We Police a Future Society? 287

Where Do We Draw the Line? 287

What Questions Should You Ask? 288

In an Eggshell 289

Appendix: A Fertility Forecasting Chart 290

Glossary 293

Resources 313

Index 317

About the Authors 329

Editorial Reviews

InfoDad.com, 12/26/2013

“An exceptionally wide-ranging and mostly approachably written guide to fertility issues and what to do about them…Enormously helpful.”

BookViews blog, 12/31/2013

“For those couples dealing with the issue, they will take comfort in known they are not isolated and without direction in facing their problem.

From the Publisher