We all agree fresh chicken tastes better than frozen. We’ve seen popsicles get a weird coating of ice when they have been in the freezer too long.  This life experience is why most people, when they initial approach embryo transfer, want a fresh embryo transfer.  They do not want a freezer burnt embryo. So it often comes as a surprise to people when they learn that frozen embryo transfer pregnancy rates are generally higher than fresh embryos transfers.

The practice of infertility has really changed over the past decade. Dramatic changes in our understanding of embryo health, genetics, endometrial function, ovarian stimulation, etc. means the more and more people are getting pregnant than ever before.  Infertility treatment is really expensive, but for the science involved for the number of highly educated people needed to administer these treatments, it is actually less expensive than it certainly could be.

The pandemic has also changed infertility care, well not the science but the people.

Spoiler: your embryo can be frozen for years and years with no harm to the pregnancy rate.

You’ve probably seen those funny, though a bit mean-spirited, memes on-line about “Florida Man.”   “Florida man” does reckless, silly or illegal things much more often than men from other parts of the world, it seems.  Like “Florida man steals car in jail parking lot after being released on charges of stealing a car.”

Do you notice how IG influencers often start posts with “I always get asked about…”. Let me start this blog with that same phrase. Haha

I always get asked about medications in pregnancy.  Which ones are safe?  The FDA uses a class or category system for drugs in pregnancy:

Category A

Adequate and well-controlled studies have failed to demonstrate a risk to the fetus in the first trimester of pregnancy (and there is no evidence of risk in later trimesters).

Example drugs or substances: levothyroxine, folic acid

I’d like a job that only involves delivering good news to people. No negative news. The CRA employee who tells people about larger than expected tax refunds or the dog breeder who tells you about the birth of your new puppy.

In health care, most jobs involve sharing good news and bad news with people.  The bad news  in fertility care is:

• Your eggs or sperm are not healthy enough to make a child
• You have no useable embryos
• You are not pregnant
• You are having a miscarriage

I love stories. Podcasts like Serial, S-Town, Dying for Sex, and The Shrink Next Door keep me parked in my car listening outside my house, when I should have gone inside long ago.   When I was in my 20s I watched Dateline, read autobiographies and start searching for the stories of my family.  Not all stories are good ones or well told, but they all still have value.

The stories that will come out of 2020 will be sad, amazing, boring, scary, and surprising.

I like social media. I love flipping through seeing my great aunts share recipes, see where old friends from high school are vacationing, reading celebrities post about political events, etc.  One celebrity I follow is Chrissy Teigen. I like her a lot.  I like her cookbooks and I like her style.

I had my eyebrows waxed this morning.  They were overdue but people really can’t see that sort of facial detail on a Zoom call, so I had let it slide.  On the drive to the brow studio my daughter asked me if I know any “Karens” and, after sorting out how a 10 year old knows this reference, explained that I did not know any “Karens.” I also said that I didn’t like much of this whole “Karen” insult to women.  Anyway, I left the car and went to have my brows done.

I remember a funny Ellen Degeneres story in which the gynecologist talks about his golf game while doing a pap smear on Ellen.  I remember thinking that gynecologist must have done thousands of paps and they became so routine he forgot about how the patient was feeling during the experience.

Yesterday I watched Falcon 9 launch from the Kennedy Space Centre.  It was emotional.  It was emotional as I remembered watching the Challenger explode in 1986.  It was emotional as I am so impressed at what science can achieve. It was emotional thinking about the bravery of those in the Dragon capsule.  Then when the rocket landed back on the pad in the ocean I was blown away.

With money, brilliant minds and a common will, humans can do anything.

I survived COVID-19.  Googling how I can get that on a bumper sticker now.

I feel great again. It was a terrible flu but it passed and I have been released from isolation by the Medical Officer of Health.  Now, I move around the world with some confidence as I am immune.  While there are two strains of the COVID virus, reinfection or infection with the other strain is not common. I will still take the same precautions everyone is taking to avoid getting sick again, though.

COVID-19 has caused massive distress, disease and confusion. I have to admit I was confused.  After all hearing that 8 or 9 elderly people died didn’t sound that different from a usual flu season.  Things have changed, and keep changing, though and it has become apparent that COVID is much worse than the typical flu.

It spreads faster, it lasts longer, and it causes a very severe pneumonia that is far more likely to kill people than the flu.

About 15% of our patients have tubal factor infertility, meaning we think blocked or diseased Fallopian tubes are the reason they are infertile. We assess the tubes with a hysterosalpingogram (HSG). The HSG is also called the “dye test” because dye is passed up through the uterus and out the tubes. An x-ray is then taken and the radiologist can sort out whether the tubes are open or not.