May 18, 2012

Caffeine and miscarriage

Last week, the scary health story du jour plastering the airwaves concerned a research study that found a link between high caffeine consumption and miscarriage. While some news outlets were relatively objective in their reporting with headlines like "Best evidence yet of caffeine-miscarriage link" and "caffeine is linked to miscarriage risk", others distort the truth [...]

My first lecture to DO students

I’ve been on faculty at a University of California medical school for over 10 years now. Last year, I was invited to additionally join the faculty of a second medical school. At the first school, students graduate with an M.D. degree, which is the degree that the general public typically associates with "medical doctors". At [...]

Selling your time

What exactly are you paying for when you spend your money on medical services? This question was inspired by a post on another blog that I regularly visit. It’s pretty obvious when you go to the supermarket, you come home with bread and eggs in exchange for the dollars that you leave there. When you [...]

I'm still here

I realize I’ve not been posting with my usual frequency. I know that some people use their blog for venting. I promise not to abuse this, but I will take my privilege this one time. There are a few reasons for by absence lately. Most notably, we’ve had more new patients this month than ever [...]

Baby boy NOAH, born from frozen embryo that survived Katrina flood

Baby born Jan 15, 2007 on Martin Luther King’s birthday. Just turned one year old. His parents were prepared to name the baby Hannah, if a girl and Noah, if a boy.

Beating PCOS through will power

I really admire some patients. I certainly admire those who bravely endure difficult infertility treatment followed many months later by enduring hours of painful labor in their difficult first delivery. Yet, there is another patient I admire even more who happened to have a super easy forty minutes of labor in her first pregnancy. But [...]

Taking risks to help the world a little

I’ve always been a risk-taker, risking my own things, not other people’s. This includes taking huge risks such as starting my own infertility practice and making some high-risk high-yield financial investments, which have come to pay off very handsomely. However, I am prone to taking many near-trivial risks in life also, such as waiting for [...]

It's nice to be UN-needed sometimes

A minor miracle has happened and I can take no credit for it. To balance all the happy stories of babies for whom I was privileged to have a part in their conception, this patient has asked me to share her story to give a glimmer of hope to women who give up on treatment. [...]

Clomid first timer

I came across your website and decided to contact you just to get a second opinion.  Hopefully you can help.  I am 25 yrs old, married for two years and have been trying to conceive for the past 5-6 months.  Once we decided to have a baby, I started reading a lot online and decided [...]

No fake babies, please

I take issue with cruel inconsiderate people who criticize infertility patients, accusing them of not accepting their fate and trying to change the “fact” that nature intended them to be childless. The other common stupid accusation is that people who do infertility treatement are selfish because they only want a baby for themselves, not for [...]