Genesis Fertility Clinic Blog
January 29, 2012Caffeine
My colleagues and I will sometimes joke that we went to university for 13+ years and now that we are in practice we get asked “can I dye my hair in pregnancy?” and we can’t answer it! We were never taught the answer! We learned about molecular mechanisms of disease, spent hours in the histology lab reviewing cell structures, sat through many lectures on metabolism and pharmacology, etc. but we were never taught the answers to many everyday questions.
One such question I get asked often is “how much caffeine is safe when trying to conceive?”
To answer that a few researchers have followed women who were trying to conceive though their attempts and early pregnancy and had them record how much caffeine (in coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate) they consumed. While there were some conflicting results, the bottom line is that more than 200mg of caffeine per day slightly increases the risk of miscarriage. There was no suggestion that caffeine caused infertility.
A study referenced in the NY times recently looked at how caffeine consumption effected non-pregnant women’s estrogen levels. Interestingly, caffeine was found to increase estrogen levels in white women but decrease estrogen levels in Asian women. This is probably due to genetics. The change in level, up or down, wasn’t enough to effect ovulation or fertility, that they could tell. I wonder what it means for mood and libido in the short term, and breast cancer and bone health in the long term. It will be interesting to follow this research.
Part of my job is to translate this kind of science to patients; and it’s the most fun part. Now that I have been in practice for a few years I find myself reading much less basic science research and much more of the patient-centred research. It makes the job more fun and allows me to answer the questions patients actually want answered. Rarely do I get asked about the expression of steriodogenic proteins by mouse syncytiotrophoblasts. hehe….
Dr. Beth Taylor, MD, FRCSC
Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility
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January 15, 2012What happens to infertile couples?
I saw a patient today whose husband left her because their infertility is due to a problem with her. How often does a person leave their spouse because of infertility?
There have been a few large European studies that attempt to answer that question. You can read a recent article that includes a summary of past studies here.
The summary is that when couples are followed for up to 20 years after IVF treatment (successful or not) about 70% of them are still together. The chance they are still together is the same whether or not they have children.
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January 13, 2012Dragon Baby
The year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac calendar begins January 23rd. Babies born in the year of the dragon are meant to bring luck to a family and according to Chinese tradition are high-spirited, fearless and destined for success.
More Chinese women are expected to try to time their pregnancies to deliver this year. This phenomenon of astrological influence on birth rates has been noted in the past with slightly lower Asian birth rates documented in years of the tiger (headstrong and difficult) and horse (rebellious).
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January 7, 2012Building a Better Baby?
The cover of the Globe and Mail today featured an article on Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). The article is titled Building a Better Baby.
In my opinion the article tries to create a big concern where there is a small one.
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January 2, 2012Visualizing from conception to birth
I like to watch TED lectures before bed. Tonight I watched an amazing mathematician from Yale who has visually modeled the journey fetal conception, through fetal development to childbirth.
If you go to TED.com and search for Alexander Tsiaras you can watch too. The process is so complex and beautiful.
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January 1, 20122012
The new year is not off to a good start I am sad to say. I just learned that a patient of mine (a lovely couple) is probably not pregnant after a second IVF embryo transfer, one of my daughters got a very deep cut on her chin at the swimming pool this afternoon and innocent people keep being killed in Syria. Ok, these problems are from vastly difference places on the scale of human misfortune, but they all hurt.
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December 28, 2011A procreative 2012
I wish everyone a merry Christmas and procreative 2012!
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December 16, 2011Judgement
I’ve been reading some new age/pop psychology lately. A little Chopra here and a little Redfield there. Perhaps it’s that time of year when we reflect on who we are and where we are going. It’s also to try and centre myself before the holiday season when family comes together. I love nearly every part of the Christmas season, except the judgement that can follow family gatherings.
If you are infertile, you know this judgement well. People you haven’t seen in a while asking when you are having kids or why you haven’t. People making you second guess your decisions to have children, pursue treatment, try to adopt, go back to IVF, try acupuncture, etc.
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December 15, 2011Varicocele
There are lots of grey areas in reproductive medicine. Sometimes being unclear what the best treatment is makes my job interesting, and other times it makes it frustrating. One frustrating grey area is the management of varicoceles.
A varicocele is an abnormal dilatation of a vein in the scrotum that drains blood from the testicles. Varicoceles can cause pain or aching in the testicles and can effect sperm count and quality. There is little doubt that (at least large) varicoceles can impact sperm, but it is unclear whether fixing them meaningfully improves sperm counts.
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December 8, 2011Gets people talking
Infertility is generally not talked about. People feel ashamed or embarrassed that they can’t conceive – something that should be easy to do. However, the more people talk about infertility, the better, as it will normalize the problem and help couples realize they are not alone.
Recently a famous Bollywood couple, Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao, conceived using IVF and a surrogate.
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