Ep 214: Time to Tackle Your Questions About Low Egg Count

This week we turn our attention to your questions about egg reserve. Join Dr. Carrie Bedient from The Fertility Center of Las Vegas, Dr. Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center and Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center as they take a deep drive into your ovarian reserve in an educational question and answer episode. They help listeners determine how decreased ovarian reserve is defined and what you need to consider when you get the diagnosis. You will understand what type of workup should be done by your physician and when to pursue ovulation induction and intrauterine insemination versus more aggressive fertility treatment. Find out why your age is important when fertility decisions are made. You will hear about conditions that can lead to decreased ovarian reserve and others that may be present if you have the diagnosis. The docs help you determine how to balance your goals for a family with treatments that will give you success in the most expedient way. If you choose to do IVF the types of stimulations aimed at producing the best results are teased apart by each physician. Come join us for this interesting discussion.

Ep 213: Funky Bleeding

While potential parents struggle to get pregnant, managing abnormal periods with irregular, heavy, or absent menstrual bleeding frustrates an already complicated process. Join Dr. Carrie Bedient from The Fertility Center of Las Vegas, Dr. Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center and Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center as they explain how strange bleeding patterns influence and inform fertility treatment. They set the stage of normal menstrual bleeding patterns and the common disruptions to those patterns. They review how to approach light spotting and heavy bleeding from the fertility perspective. The doctors discuss reasons for extremely heavy or non-stop bleeding and how that influences getting pregnant, as well as reasons for very minimal or completely absent bleeding. “Ask the Docs” questions this week focus on flying with IVF medications and supplementing trying to conceive naturally with progesterone. Join us as we decipher the event that kicks off every round of testing and treatment during the infertility journey!

Ep 212: Listener Questions About Fertility Tests

Have you ever wondered why you need all of those tests? And why the timing of them is so important? Listen as the Fertility Docs, Dr. Carrie Bedient from the Fertlity Center of Las Vegas, Dr.Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center, and Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center take a deep dive into the questions listeners have about fertility tests. These ladies will discuss the basic tubal assessment tests, like the saline sonogram and the hysterosalpingogram (HSG). You will hear about antimullerian hormone and the role it plays in treatment decision making. Tests more pertinent to in vitro fertilization are discussed such as the Reciptiva assay. The Reciptiva assay is a newer test that looks at an inflammatory marker in the endometrium and may be of interest if you have nad endometriosis in the past. Male partners are not left out. The Sperm QT has been available for a couple of years and may help determine if his swimmers have the right stuff.Check out this episode to hear about these tests.

Special Episode: Alabama Supreme Court Ruling

The decision regarding the status of embryos in the recent Alabama Supreme Court case threatens the future of reproductive medicine, fertility treatments, and IVF. Rebecca O’Connor, JD, the Director of Policy and Leadership for the American Reproductive Society of Medicine, explains how this case evolved and the potential repercussions of these decisions. The docs review the process of IVF and how embryo attrition happens in the real world, and what that means for patients undergoing in vitro fertilization. They also review the statistics of natural conception and how the fate of every potential embryo unfortunately does not result in a live birth. Join Dr. Carrie Bedient from The Fertility Center of Las Vegas, Dr. Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center and Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center to learn how you can advocate for fertility care rights.

Ep 211: The Elephant in the Room: How Your General Health Conditions Impact Fertility

The fertility journey heavily focuses on the reproductive system, but every other system counts too! Join Dr. Carrie Bedient from The Fertility Center of Las Vegas, Dr. Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center and Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center as they go head to toe reviewing how non-reproductive medical problems influence fertility. With emphasis placed on the heart, lungs, and GI system, they discuss how and why the rest of your body influences your fertility. They highlight particularly concerning conditions that require attention prior to becoming pregnant. Listen in for helpful information about your general health and how it relates to fertility.

Ep 210: Carrier screening-What’s hiding in your family tree?

Carrier screening is an important part of your pre-conceptual evaluation that looks for inherited medical conditions that hide in the family tree. Join Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center, Dr. Carrie Bedient from The Fertility Center of Las Vegas, and Dr. Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center as they discuss how carrier screening can impact your fertility journey. They define how carrier screening is different from other genetic testing and share treatment options you can use if you are affected by carrier screening results.

Ep 209: The Nitty Gritty on Failed IVF Cycles: Protocols, Additional Testing and More!

VF cycles offer enough challenges without the added drama of a cycle that fails to create a pregnancy.  Join Dr. Carrie Bedient from The Fertility Center of Las Vegas, Dr. Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center and Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center as they dissect real-world IVF cycles and potential changes to protocols that may help patients. The fabulous listeners submitted a ton of questions that illustrate potential points of change within a given IVF cycle. The doctors touch on the subtleties of protocols using different types and doses of gonadotropins. They review pretreatment techniques and nuances of different medications to alternately suppress or slingshot hormone levels to greatness. And of course, not everything in a failed IVF cycle is due to the IVF itself – questions of uterine abnormalities, aberrant hormone levels like prolactin, potential causes of recurrent implantation failure and the influence of embryo grading all receive in-depth commentary on different approaches to management. Listen in as we evaluate and offer suggestions on how to improve your next cycle!

Ep 208: Why Ectopic Pregnancies Don’t Play by the Rules

A critical part of pregnancy is location, location, location, and when a pregnancy presents outside the uterus, it is an ectopic pregnancy that is serious and, in some cases, life-threatening, so experienced care matters. Join Dr. Carrie Bedient from The Fertility Center of Las Vegas, Dr. Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center and Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center as share their expertise about where ectopic pregnancies can appear, associated risk factors that leave women more susceptible to ectopic pregnancy and clues they look for when suspecting an ectopic pregnancy. The docs also share medication options and recent research to treat ectopic pregnancies as well as surgical procedures that safeguard a woman’s health.

Ep 207: The Listener Lowdown – Answering your Fertility Questions

This week, we let our informed listeners lead the way as we field varied questions ranging from IVF testing considerations for men and women, to education about endometriosis and some specifics about PCOS in a bit of a fertility-free-for-all. Join Dr. Carrie Bedient from The Fertility Center of Las Vegas, Dr. Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center and Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center for an informative and thoughtful conversation giving listeners the unique opportunity to receive multiple informed opinions on their most pressing personal questions. This includes addressing the misnomer of empty follicle syndrome, what to do if insurance just says no and why the definition of a “successful” fertility treatment means different things to do different people. In addition, you’ll learn about an exciting collaborative project our terrific trio is taking on. Come learn with us!

Ep 206: Pack Your Patience – The IVF Timeline

While potential parents facing fertility challenges are anxious to get pregnant, rushing through a complex process such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) can often result in speed bumps that can actually slow the process. Join Dr. Carrie Bedient from The Fertility Center of Las Vegas, Dr. Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center and Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center as they try to set patient expectations by explaining from start to finish, that individual timelines are truly unique for each step of IVF. They emphasize first laying groundwork which includes navigating financial considerations and insurance is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Treatment timelines involve the careful choreography of priming and preparing your hormone levels which vary, the different lengths of time it can take to stimulate ovaries to develop eggs and the all-important timing of your trigger shot to induce ovulation leading to eventual fertilization, genetic testing and embryo transfer. We’ll unpack the process and give you tips to deal with unexpected life circumstances that often pop up along the way!