Do you know my Crunchy Apple Theory?

I don’t expect you to know my “crunchy apple theory” unless you’re a patient of mine. I’ll teach you the theory now. Take a look at this picture. What do you see?

I see one apple that looks really beautiful and hopefully also crunchy on the inside.  I love apples that are super crunchy. I strongly dislike apples that are mealy and mushy. You’re wondering where I’m going with this, right?

Beautiful apples are like beautiful embryos. Just because an embryo is gorgeous and “high quality” on the outside doesn’t also mean that it is healthy and genetically normal on the inside. For now, the only way you can tell if an embryo is “crunchy” or healthy on the inside is if you take a bite ie a biopsy from it. So when you’re doing IVF and transferring “gorgeous embryos” realize that it doesn’t mean they’re also genetically normal and have what it takes to turn into a healthy pregnancy. It doesn’t matter where the apple came from, where the tree was located or anything like that. I have patients that say things like, “no one in my family has abnormal chromosomes.” And that’s the thing! When an egg and sperm come together the cells divide and the cell divisions can be abnormal and that has nothing to do with what’s in your family tree. Embryos that aren’t the prettiest on the outside, can be normal and turn into strong, healthy pregnancies!

Doing genetic testing ie PGS is the closest thing to a crystal ball we have when it comes to IVF medicine and it still isn’t everything or perfect. We’re learning more about an embryo’s implantation potential from its mitoscore, how to better define the implantation window through the Endometrial Receptivity Assay test and how to choose the best transfer protocol from the Receptivadx test. There are also sperm tests to guide us about the genetic contribution of sperm to embryo development too! Hoping to give my patients the highest IVF pregnancy rates ever with the most current and accurate scientific tools available.

As always, my blog isn’t replacement for medical advice from your personal physician.