After many long months of actively trying to conceive without success, you and your partner are probably wondering why getting pregnant hasn’t as easy as you thought it would be. And if you’re anything like the average couple, you may have even begun tackling your problem by evaluating your timing, basic health habits, and overall lifestyle.

If you still find it hard to get pregnant after tracking your ovulation, eating a more nutritious diet, and reaching a healthier body weight, you may find yourself wondering whether you or your partner has an undiagnosed medical condition that affects your ability to conceive with ease.

While a significant number of couples do eventually discover that their fertility problems are linked to low sperm count, poor sperm motility, an ovulation disorder, or a gynecological condition like polycystic ovary syndrome, just as many couples are surprised to find out that an undiagnosed or uncontrolled thyroid disorder is to blame.

Your thyroid gland may be small and unassuming, but the hormones it produces play a major role in virtually all of your body processes, including reproduction. Here’s what you need to know.

Thyroid function basics

Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped endocrine gland situated along your windpipe at the front of your neck. It’s tasked with absorbing the iodine from your diet and transforming it into thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), the thyroid hormones that help regulate metabolism, which involves how each cell, tissue, organ, and system in your body uses energy.

Your thyroid gland controls or influences a wide range of vital body processes, including heart rate, temperature, respiration, nervous system activity, and muscle function. It also helps regulate ovulation, menstrual cycle regularity, and other aspects of reproductive health, including normal fetal health and development.

If your thyroid gland isn’t working properly — or if the two glands in your brain that control it (pituitary gland and hypothalamus) aren’t working well — it can’t maintain a steady output of thyroid hormones. It may produce too many hormones and cause your body systems to speed up (hyperthyroidism), or it may produce too few hormones and cause your body systems to slow down (hypothyroidism).

A thyroid hormone imbalance of any kind can have a negative impact on your reproductive health, making it either difficult to become pregnant or carry a pregnancy to term.

Thyroid disorders and infertility

An estimated 30 million adults in the United States have some type of thyroid disorder. An underactive thyroid, or hypothyroidism, is especially common, particularly among women — the condition affects five times as many women as men.

An underactive thyroid that doesn’t produce enough hormones can interfere with ovulation, or the monthly release of an egg from your ovaries. It simply isn’t possible to become pregnant if an egg isn’t available for fertilization.

Hyperthyroidism, which is an overactive thyroid, can also affect your ability to become pregnant by throwing your menstrual cycle off balance. Women with hyperthyroidism are more likely to experience light, irregular, or skipped periods.

Thyroid disorders and miscarriage

In addition to making it more challenging to conceive, an underactive thyroid can make it more difficult for your body to carry any pregnancy that does occur to full term.

Because your body requires a certain level of thyroid hormone to support a developing fetus as well as your own expanded metabolic needs, having low levels of thyroid hormone can irreversibly impair fetal growth and development in early pregnancy and lead to miscarriage.

Women with untreated hypothyroidism who are able to conceive are more likely to have a miscarriage in their first trimester. They’re also more likely to experience multiple miscarriages compared to women with normal levels of thyroid hormones.

Although an overactive thyroid isn’t as likely to cause recurrent miscarriage, it has been linked to premature birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth.

Evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment

If you’re under the age of 35 and haven’t been able to conceive after a year of trying, or you’re over 35 and have been trying for six months, it’s a good idea to schedule a comprehensive infertility evaluation.

Because hormones play a critical role in every stage of conception and pregnancy, assessing thyroid function is an essential component of your infertility checkup. It’s especially important if you have a family history of thyroid disorders, or if you’ve ever experienced irregular periods or multiple miscarriages.

For women who are diagnosed with a thyroid disorder, medication is often all it takes to balance hormone levels and restore fertility. As always, your personal treatment plan depends on your exact diagnosis.

If you’d like to learn more about how your thyroid influences your fertility, call your nearest California Center for Reproductive Health clinic in Encino, West Hollywood, Monica, or Valencia, California. You can also use our easy online scheduling tool to make an appointment with one of our fertility experts any time.

You may have heard the recent news that fertility rates throughout the United States — in both urban and rural areas and across all races — have plummeted to historic lows following three decades of long and steady decline.

While the dwindling national fertility rate is generally blamed on the fact that American women are starting their families later and having fewer babies than in the past, experts agree that social, economic, and cultural shifts aren’t the only contributing factors. Many scientists and fertility specialists surmise that omnipresent environmental factors, or routine exposure to toxic or disruptive chemicals, may also be at play.

Some of the most pervasive toxic substances are endocrine disruptors, which are chemicals capable of mimicking hormone activity or significantly altering hormone production and metabolism. Research shows that these hormone-disrupting chemicals can affect sperm count and quality, menstrual cycle regularity, egg maturation, and normal ovulation, among other things.

If you and your partner are struggling to conceive, here’s what you should know about endocrine disruptors — where they lurk, how they can affect your fertility, and what you can do to limit your exposure.

What are endocrine disruptors?

Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with your endocrine system, or the network of glands and hormones that drive development, regulate metabolism, facilitate brain function, and play a starring role in fertility and reproduction.

Endocrine disruptors can influence the way your body makes or controls your reproductive hormones as well as their receptors. Chemicals that act as anti-estrogens or anti-androgens can bind to receptors within a cell to prevent the hormones themselves from binding, stopping the transmission of essential signals.

Endocrine disruptors are also capable of mimicking naturally occurring estrogens, androgens, and thyroid hormones, leading to reproductive hormonal imbalance and overstimulation.

A variety of substances, most of which are synthetic, are known to affect reproductive hormones, including dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, phthalates, perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), and plasticizers like bisphenol-A (BPA). Phytoestrogens, which are found in soy plants and soy products, are naturally occurring endocrine disruptors.

How do endocrine disruptors affect fertility?

Because endocrine disruptors have only recently come to the attention of scientists and health experts, their toxicological effects aren’t yet fully understood. And even though much of what is known about their impact on fertility and reproduction is derived from animal studies, early human studies have resulted in consistent findings.

When it comes to fertility and reproductive health, endocrine disruptors have been linked to an increased likelihood of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, hypothyroidism, and reduced sperm quality and quantity. They’re also associated with an increased risk of preterm birth and miscarriage.

Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds can cause shorter menstrual cycles and poor sperm vitality. Phthalates are associated with reduced testosterone levels, low sperm count, and decreased sperm mobility. PFCs have been linked to thyroid disease as well as decreased fertility in men and women alike. At high concentrations, plasticizers like BPA can interfere with egg production, maturation, and fertilization.

What can I do to minimize my exposure?

Although scientists are still working to understand how endocrine disruptors are accumulated and excreted, they do know that significant levels of these compounds can be detected in a vast majority of people today.

Although tests that measure the presence of the metabolites made by endocrine disruptors can give you an idea of your overall exposure to these insidious chemicals, detoxification treatment protocols aren’t yet well-defined.

What experts do know, however, is that certain endocrine disruptors tend to accumulate in body fat. In such cases, simply losing a few extra pounds may be enough to decrease chemical concentration and restore optimal fertility.

In most cases, the best way to protect your fertility from the harmful effects of endocrine disruptors is by taking steps to minimize your exposure to them in the first place.

The first step in avoiding these ubiquitous chemicals is knowing that they can be found in a wide range of everyday products, including commonly used pesticides and herbicides, plastic bottles, vinyl shower curtains, metal food cans, nonstick cookware, detergents, and coatings used on fabrics, furniture, and carpeting. They’re also found in many personal care products, including shampoo and cosmetics.

To reduce your exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, you can:

Wash your hands often

Frequent handwashing helps wash a substantial amount of chemical residue down the drain. Just be sure to avoid antibacterial and fragranced soaps, which are known endocrine disruptors.

Keep your house clean

Flame retardants and other industrial coatings can escape from fabrics, furniture, carpeting, and electronics and accumulate in household dust. You can minimize these free-floating, breathable chemicals by routinely dusting with a damp cloth and cleaning your carpets with a vacuum that has a HEPA filter.

Use less plastic

Because research shows that even very low-dose exposure to BPA and other plasticizers can be detrimental to fertility and reproduction, it’s a good idea to eliminate as many products made with plastic or vinyl from your life as you can.

Swap plastic cups for glasses, use stainless steel or glass storage containers instead of plastic ones, opt for reusable fabric baggies, and keep food fresh with beeswax-coated cloth instead of plastic cling wrap.

Other strategies

Avoiding canned foods, eliminating perfume and other fragranced products, and eating organic fruits, vegetables, and grain products are a few other simple ways you can limit your exposure to endocrine disruptors.

If you’re interested in learning more about the link between endocrine disruptors and fertility, the team at California Center for Reproductive Health can help. Call your nearest clinic in Encino, West Hollywood, Monica, or Valencia, California, or click the button to schedule an appointment online.

If you’ve been trying to get pregnant for many months without success, it’s only natural to speculate about whether you or your partner has an underlying medical condition that impacts your fertility.

While many couples eventually do learn that their fertility issue is a result of a physical problem, such as low sperm count, poor sperm motility, blocked fallopian tubes, or polycystic ovary syndrome, the vast majority of couples struggling to conceive are surprised to find out that their problem could be related to lifestyle factors.

For women, one of those factors is diet. Although fertility experts don’t know exactly how a woman’s nutritional status affects her chances of conceiving, ongoing research is painting a picture of the kinds of foods that may support optimal fertility, as well as those that appear to interfere with it.

Whether you plan to follow a healthy fertility diet to maximize your likelihood of conceiving with in vitro fertilization (IVF), or you simply want to do everything you can to boost your chances of becoming pregnant on your own, making the right changes in your diet can have a significant effect on your fertility. Here’s what you need to know.

The landmark Nurses’ Health Study

Although there have been several large-scale studies on how diet affects female fertility, the first and most comprehensive of its kind — the precedent-setting Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) — remains the benchmark for the amount of detailed information it reveals.

The NHS, an ongoing multi-study project that began in 1976 and continues to this day, has grown to include more than 275,000 participants. Because it emphasizes regular follow-up of long-term participants, including repeated assessment of health and lifestyle factors, the NHS has long played an instrumental role in shaping public health recommendations.

Part of its research includes the first comprehensive examination of diet and fertility, which it conducted in an eight-year study of more than 18,000 women. The study revealed that making certain dietary changes can help increase ovulation and improve your chances of getting pregnant.

Fertility diet recommendations

In summary, the dietary recommendations drawn from the NHS fertility study look like any healthy diet: They emphasize the benefits of focusing on nutrient-dense, whole foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean protein sources, and healthy fats. They also stress the importance of limiting refined grains and foods that are high in added sugars, preservatives, and unhealthy fats. Specifically, you should:

Eat more plant-based proteins

If you eat a lot of chicken, eggs, meat, or pork, simply replacing one serving of animal protein a day with a serving of dried legumes (beans, peas, and lentils), soybeans, tofu, or other form of plant-based protein can boost your fertility.

Choose complex carbs as often as possible

Whenever possible, choose slow-digesting complex carbohydrates like whole grains and whole fruit over simple carbohydrates like white bread and fruit juice. By helping you maintain stable blood sugar and insulin levels, complex carbs promote normal ovulation.

Include heart-healthy unsaturated fats

Including more unsaturated fats (think monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids) in your diet can help decrease chronic inflammation and improve your body’s sensitivity to insulin, both of which foster optimal fertility. To boost your intake of unsaturated fats, include more nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, and salmon.

Steer clear of trans fats

Trans fats, a type of manmade fat that’s associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, also appear to have a negative impact on fertility. To steer clear of trans fats, avoid margarine, fried foods, and any food product that contains partially hydrogenated oils.

Eat more iron-rich plants

The NHS study shows that women who get extra iron from plant sources appear to have less trouble conceiving than those who get most of their iron from meat and other animal sources. Whole-grain cereals, legumes, dried fruit, nuts, and seeds are just a few good plant-based sources of iron.

Stay hydrated, but watch what you drink

Staying hydrated keeps all your body systems — including your reproductive system — working smoothly. Although coffee and tea are okay in moderation when you’re trying to get pregnant, water is the best way to keep yourself hydrated and protect your fertility.

If you drink milk, choose whole milk over skim, because skim milk appears to have a negative impact on female fertility. You should also skip sugary sodas, which have been linked to problems with ovulation.

Other beneficial lifestyle changes

While following fertility diet recommendations can make a real difference in your ability to conceive naturally, it’s just one of many helpful lifestyle changes you can make to support optimal fertility.

Besides eating well, maintaining a healthy body weight is one of the most important steps you can take to encourage normal ovulation and maximize your chances of becoming pregnant. Staying moderately active most days of the week also supports normal ovulation, as does avoiding tobacco and alcohol.

If you’d like to learn more about the link between diet and fertility, our team of specialists at California Center for Reproductive Health is ready to help. Call your nearest clinic in Encino, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, or Valencia, California, or use the convenient online tool to schedule a consultation.

Secure Storage of Frozen Eggs and Embryos at CCRH and In Vitrotech Labs

We at CCRH and In Vitrotech Labs were saddened to hear of the devastating incident involving a cryotank malfunctioning at two fertility centers earlier this month.

We want to reassure our patients that this is an exceedingly rare event and extremely unlikely to happen at our Center.

It is important to understand how cryotanks work. Cryotanks are best thought of as giant thermoses. They are often cylindrical, approximately the size of a washer unit. The tanks have thick insulation in the walls and the bottom, with a thick insulated lid, and are filled with liquid nitrogen. There is no electrical power that keeps the tank cold, it’s the liquid nitrogen contained in the tank that maintains the low temperature.

Liquid nitrogen boils at minus 196 degree Celsius. The temperature at the surface of the liquid will always be warmer, and therefore the liquid nitrogen is constantly evaporating and will therefore need to be replenished.

All the eggs, embryos, and sperm are placed in very tiny containers, called “straws and vials” and kept submerged in the liquid nitrogen.  At this temperature, there is no biological activity and therefore no deterioration of the biological tissue. As long as the samples are stored completely submerged in the liquid nitrogen, they can be kept indefinitely.

With the reported incidents, the drop in liquid nitrogen level and subsequent temperature fluctuation in the cryotanks may have affected the viability of the eggs and embryos.

At In Vitrotech Labs, our tanks are continuously monitored and equipped with an alarm system. If the liquid nitrogen falls below a threshold, the alarm system will not only sound in the lab, it will also immediately send a first phone call to our lab director. If she doesn’t answer the call, a second phone call from alarm system will be sent to another senior embryologist. If the second phone call is also missed by the senior embryologist, then a third phone call will be sent to our lab assistant—the status of the cryotanks in our lab are monitored 24/7.

Furthermore, the liquid nitrogen level in the cryotanks are visually checked daily, and the tanks refilled to the maximum capacity, “topped-off” every other day.  With the lid closed, the normal rate of evaporation in our tanks will take approximately two weeks before the level drops below a concerning threshold. In our laboratory, we additionally set a higher liquid nitrogen threshold to ensure even if the liquid nitrogen level reaches the threshold, specimens stored in the tanks will still be completely submerged in the liquid nitrogen.

At California Center for Reproductive Health, we’re committed to helping you overcome the challenges of infertility. Much of our success depends on the health of your available eggs. Our testing protocols help us understand your egg quantity and quality, so that we can provide you with the best treatment options.

Many factors can affect your ability to become pregnant. Both the quantity and quality of the eggs produced within your ovaries are vitally important. It’s sometimes hard to separate one from the other, but quality may matter even more than quantity when it comes to fertility issues.

Follicles are the fluid-filled sacs in your ovaries that contain immature eggs. Hormonal influences during your menstrual cycle cause a follicle to mature and release its egg. During a natural cycle, typically only one egg is released for fertilization.

If you have follicles in your ovaries, we can use medication to help manipulate or entice these structures to mature the eggs they hold. We can then collect or “harvest” the eggs for in vitro fertilization (IVF) or freeze them for future use.

Sometimes, however, abnormalities within the eggs themselves can prevent a successful pregnancy, regardless of how many eggs we might capture. Heredity, aging, illness, and some medical treatments for diseases, such as cancer, can slow your production of eggs. These factors can also cause chromosomal abnormalities in your eggs which may result in failure of fertility treatments or lead to a miscarriage.

And because we’re dedicated to helping you achieve your dream of becoming pregnant as well as carrying a pregnancy full-term, we focus on the potential quality as well as the quantity of eggs available in your ovaries.

Starting with the basics

When you’re having difficulty with fertility issues, our first consideration of potential problems with your egg quality and quantity is your age. For most women, fertility declines slowly until you reach 30. At that point, declines in egg quantity and quality begin to accelerate quickly and continue declining through your 30s and early 40s.

Every case is unique, but older women have a much greater risk of producing eggs with abnormal chromosomes and may have no chance of producing viable eggs after 45. It’s why we generally recommend women who have chosen to delay pregnancy but want to store eggs for future use consider freezing their eggs by age 30-35.

The hormonal factor

Blood tests that measure hormones related to your reproductive cycle can often point to the reason for your infertility and give us helpful information regarding the quantity and quality of your eggs.

We start with testing your levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) on the third day of your menstrual cycle. FSH helps control your egg production. When you have a high FSH level, you may have low egg quality and quantity.

Estradiol is another hormone we check via a blood test on day three, because it’s a form of estrogen and the primary female sex hormone. A high estradiol level may suppress your production of FSH. This can curb your ovaries’ ability to produce mature eggs and may make it difficult for you to respond to fertility medications. Low estradiol levels sometimes indicate conditions that can interfere with your ability to conceive, including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Another hormone we’re interested in is your anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH). It’s the hormone produced by dormant follicles in your ovaries, and we use it to assess your ovarian reserves – the number of eggs you have left. AMH is not affected by your menstrual cycle, so we can check your level at any time.

Depending on other test responses, we may recommend a Clomid challenge test. For this study, we ask you to take Clomid, a fertility medication, for several days and then recheck your FSH. If your FSH levels don’t respond adequately to the Clomid, your eggs may be low in quality and quantity and decrease your response to fertility medications used with IVF.

We might also recommend a transvaginal ultrasound to check your ovarian reserves. This painless and simple study uses ultrasound technology to capture an image of the resting follicles in your ovaries. A high number is often a good indicator of egg quality and quantity.

Any testing we do regarding the quality and quantity of your eggs is designed to ensure we create the most effective fertility treatment plan available for your circumstances. Fertility treatments are costly and time-consuming. The process can also, understandably, affect your emotional well-being.

We feel we owe our patients the best chance available for a positive outcome, and we use our extensive skill and expertise with infertility issues to help facilitate that. Egg quality testing helps us accomplish our goal. And if your eggs aren’t viable, we can save you the pain of “hit-and-miss” treatments that carry a high failure rate by recommending you consider egg donation with IVF.  

When you’re born, your ovaries contain right around three million eggs. Because some of those eggs reach a certain point of maturity, stop developing, and die off every day, you’re only left with about 300,000 eggs by the time you hit puberty.

Although a 90% reduction in egg supply may seem drastic, this prepubescent decline isn’t the decline you need to worry about.

It’s the progressive decline of egg quantity — and quality — in your reproductive years that you need to consider, especially if you’d don’t plan to start a family in your twenties, when your ovarian reserve (the number of eggs in your ovaries) is most favorable.

Whether you’ve been busy pursuing important life goals or you simply haven’t found the right partner yet, freezing your eggs gives you a way to pause your biological clock and preserve your fertility. Here’s how it works.

What is egg freezing?

Egg freezing, also known as egg cryopreservation or egg banking, is designed to take the age-related factor most likely to diminish your fertility — egg quantity and quality — out of the equation.

Pregnancy rates peak when you’re in your twenties, because that’s when your ovarian reserve is optimal. Those rates fall by nearly half once you reach your thirties, and plummet to a tiny fraction of what they once were by the time you’re in your forties.

By harvesting and preserving high-quality eggs when your ovarian reserve is relatively high, egg freezing safeguards your ability to have biological children when age-related reproductive changes may make it harder for you to become pregnant without assistance.

When should I consider freezing my eggs?

If you’re expecting a significant decline in fertility in the near future, freezing your eggs can provide you with a kind of insurance policy that basically holds your eggs — and your ability to have biological children — in a state of suspended animation.

But when, exactly, is the best time to consider freezing your eggs?

When you’re in your twenties, you still have several years before your fertility may decline significantly, so you may be advised to postpone egg freezing until you’re in your thirties. Once you reach your thirties, however, egg freezing can be an ideal solution if personal, economic, or professional circumstances are likely to keep you from starting a family in the foreseeable future.

To ensure high-quality eggs, it’s best to freeze them when you’re in your thirties — ideally, between the ages of 32 and 38. Preserving your eggs within this optimal window of time helps protect their integrity and ensure you have healthy eggs, which increases your chances of conception through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) when the time is right.

Egg freezing can also be an excellent solution for women younger than 30 who have a family history of premature ovarian failure, early menopause, or any other condition that may reduce their fertility potential more rapidly than normal.

How does egg freezing work?

Before you can freeze your eggs, you’ll have to undergo ovarian reserve testing to determine your current level of ovarian function. Using bloodwork and ultrasound imaging, ovarian reserve testing helps ensure you receive the best medication protocol to maximize the number of eggs your ovaries produce in a single cycle.

During the stimulation phase, which lasts 10-12 days, you self-administer an injectable hormonal medication to encourage your ovaries to develop multiple mature eggs. As soon as your bloodwork and ultrasound tests reveal that your estrogen levels and follicle measurements are just right, our specialists can retrieve your eggs in a quick, painless procedure.

Finally, your mature eggs are prepared for cryopreservation and stored in liquid nitrogen under strict laboratory conditions.

How long do frozen eggs last?

Because egg freezing is relatively new compared to sperm banking and embryo preservation, researchers don’t yet know exactly how long frozen eggs remain viable. What they do know, however, is that with proper extraction and storage, frozen eggs can remain viable for many months or even years, depending on your age. Younger women’s eggs tend to last longest.

Here at California Center for Reproductive Health, our affordable egg freezing program uses the most advanced cryopreservation protocols to achieve a high rate of success. If you’re in the greater Los Angeles area, and you’d like to learn more about egg freezing, give us a call today, or use our easy online tool to schedule a visit with one of our fertility specialists any time.

California Center for Reproductive Health is a proud partner with LIVESTRONG Foundation and Oncofertility Consortium. Our mission is to increase awareness and optimize accessibility to fertility preservation options for female patients diagnosed with cancer.

Cancer treatment can cause infertility and pretty much all modes of cancer treatment including

chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery have the potential to affect future fertility.

Treatment effects range from immediate (acute) ovarian failure to infertility despite continued periods (due to loss of eggs and damage to remaining eggs) to early menopause and a shortened reproductive lifespan.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology advises all health care providers to address the possibility of infertility with patients.

Dr. Mor and Dr. Woo at CCRH are passionate in addressing concerns and correcting misconceptions regarding ovarian stimulation for cancer patients.

Myth#1-There is insufficient time.

Fact- With an expedited protocol, approximately 2 weeks is required from start to finish.

Patients do not need to wait until their period to start a cycle of stimulation. Patients can start stimulation regardless of phase of menstrual cycle. Random start stimulation does require 1-2 more days of hormone injections, but there are no differences in the number of eggs retrieved or embryos created.

Myth#2-In patients with hormonally sensitive breast cancer, the high estrogen levels during IVF may stimulate malignant cells.

Fact-It is not known what peak level is safe in patients with breast cancer. Protocols designed specifically for breast cancer patients have shown to be safe. In large studies of women diagnosed with breast cancer, those that chose to pursue fertility preservation compared to those who did not, had similar rates of breast cancer recurrence.

Myth#3-I don’t have a partner, and freezing eggs is not as good as freezing embryos.

Fact-With advanced in vitro technology—vitrification, eggs are frozen in a glass like state without damage of water crystal formation.  Frozen eggs and frozen embryos result in similar pregnancy rates.

Myth#4-It is not safe to carry a pregnancy after cancer.

Fact-Current studies do not indicate increased risk of recurrence or decreased risk of survival even in women with hormonally sensitive tumors.

Myth#5-I cannot afford fertility preservation treatments.

Fact-There are multiple pharmaceutical companies that provide free medications for oncofertility patients. As partners with LIVESTRONG, California Center for Reproductive Health provides significantly discounted treatment cycles.

Improvements in cancer therapy has led to improved overall survival. Future family building is a significant quality of life issue after cancer. Safe and effective methods for fertility preservation exist. Please call our clinic for more information.

There’s a common misconception that infertility is, by and large, a female problem. While it’s true that a wide variety of factors can influence a woman’s ability to conceive, male-factor infertility is a major factor in up to 40% of infertility cases.

When a sperm defect is either the main cause or a contributing cause of a couple’s fertility issues, using a more direct fertilization method known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) can significantly improve your chances of conceiving a healthy embryo via in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Here at California Center for Reproductive Health, we do testing for the potential contribution of male factor to a couple’s infertility right from the start. We’ve helped many couples in the Los Angeles area with male-factor infertility conceive successfully using IVF with ICSI — and here’s how it works.  

Male-factor infertility

Although it can sometimes be difficult to discern whether male-factor infertility is the sole cause or one of many contributing causes of a couple’s inability to conceive, it’s estimated that sperm defects are directly responsible for about 25% of all couples’ infertility.

Male-factor infertility caused by a sperm defect usually means sperm can’t get to the egg at all, or it can get to the egg, but can’t fertilize it.

The best way to analyze sperm is with a comprehensive semen analysis, which evaluates sperm concentration, sperm motility, sperm morphology (shape), and ejaculate volume. Other important parameters include pH and the presence or absence of agglutination (clumping).  

Although a diagnosis of low sperm count or poor sperm motility is a general indication of male-factor infertility, the amount of sperm you have or how fast they swim aren’t the most important things. What matters most is whether or not your sperm can actually fertilize your partner’s eggs.

The benefits of ICSI

ICSI, which is used in almost half of all IVF treatments, is the most successful treatment approach for addressing most cases of male-factor infertility.  

During conventional IVF, your partner’s eggs are surgically removed and placed in a dish with your sperm sample. As long as the sample contains a large number of active, normal sperm, chances are fairly high that one of the strongest sperms in the sample will make its way into the egg to fertilize it.   

When the amount of suitable sperm is limited, however, conventional IVF isn’t a good option. Instead, IVF is carried out with ICSI, a method of direct egg fertilization that drastically increases the odds of creating a viable embryo.

During IVF with ICSI, we use a specialized micromanipulation tool and an inverted microscope to select and pick up individual sperm in an ultra-fine ICSI needle. Then, after carefully advancing the needle through the egg’s outer shell and membrane, we inject the sperm into the inner part of the egg.

ICSI results in normal fertilization approximately 75-85% of the time. As with conventional IVF, the fertilized egg is monitored for quality for two to five days before it’s transferred to the woman’s uterus, in the hopes that it will continue to develop into a healthy embryo.

Customized fertility solutions you can trust

Although ICSI is mostly used to help a couple overcome male-factor infertility, it’s also an ideal solution for men who decide to start a family after undergoing an irreversible vasectomy.

ICSI can also be helpful for men who have a medical condition — such as a spinal cord injury or diabetes — that makes it very difficult or impossible to get an erection or ejaculate.

And ICSI can help improve the odds of conception for couples who’ve already undergone a standard IVF treatment without success. At California Center for Reproductive Health, our ICSI success rates — meaning the IVF with ICSI treatments that result in a live birth — consistently beat the national average.

To find out more about ICSI, call today or schedule an appointment online at one of our clinics in Encino, West Hollywood, Monica, or Valencia, California.