In February, I wrote an article about how air pollution may increase your risk of miscarriage:

http://draimee.org/high-amount-of-pollution-increase-in-miscarriage-risk/

I want you to know about a recent study which has shown that women exposed to air pollution have a significantly lower chance of pregnancy. You can see a nice summary of the study here:

http://www.themedguru.com/20100513/newsfeature/air-pollution-linked-ivf-failure-study-86135116.html

After reading the published study in Human Reproduction and the news coverage, this is what I think women and men  going through IVF should know:

1. The quality of air in the embryo lab makes a big difference. Ask the lab that you are using what they are doing to make sure that their air is of great quality. Make sure the lab you are going to is using a HEPA air filtration system. Ask about the quality assurance and controls that are used to make sure that the air quality during your cycle is ideal. Read the rest of this entry »

Depending on your fertility challenges, you may be considering using donor eggs.

I counsel many women about using donor eggs and here are 4 common myths:

Myth #1: My risk of miscarriage is high even if I use donor eggs. This isn’t true. Your risk of miscarriage is related to the age of the donor egg.

Myth #2: If my eggs are “old” this means my uterus is “old” too. I can’t carry a pregnancy since my eggs are “old.” This isn’t true. Your ability to carry a pregnancy using donor eggs is related to your health and the health of your uterus. Read the rest of this entry »

A recent Danish study published in American Journal of Epidemiology showed that men who drank more soda (equivalent to 4 sodas per day) had a lower sperm count than men who didn’t drink as much soda  – and when they compared caffeine intake – the difference didn’t seem to be related to caffeine.

This totally makes sense – the guys who were drinking more sodas also ate more fast foods and ate less fruits and vegetables.  Of course their sperm counts are going to be lower – right?

But what if it’s actually something linked to the aluminum cans? Read the rest of this entry »

Patients are always asking me, “How much coffee can I drink while trying to conceive?”  There have been studies showing a link between caffeine and miscarriage and studies that show no link. Wouldn’t you think that women in these studies recorded how much caffeine they consumed daily followed by an analysis of their pregnancy outcome? None of these studies were done that way. They were all done by recall. This means women were asked to remember how much coffee they drank when they were pregnant. Researchers then came to some conclusion about what it all means.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health recently published their findings which showed no link Read the rest of this entry »