Preventing IVF Failure

What are the latest developments that can help prevent IVF from failing? What can infertility patients do to help their infertility treatment succeed? Host Dawn Davenport interviewed Dr. Sonia Elguero, board certified Reproductive Endocrinologist with Boston IVF.

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What are the current national success rates for IVF in the US?
Have IVF success rates increased in the last 5 years?
Has IVF success rates increased for women in all age brackets?
What advances have led to increased success of infertility treatment?
Are most IVF failures a failure of the embryo to implant, or a failure of the embryo to grow after implantation?
Is it better to transfer embryos on day 3 or day 5 or 6?
How do infertility doctors decide what day to transfer: day 3 or blastocyst stage?
How has preimplantation genetic screening (PGD) altered the practice of IVF?
What makes a uterus receptive to implantation?
Can a dilation and curettage (D&C) increase your risk of infertility?
How much can reproductive endocrinologists tell about the endometrium lining by ultrasound or sonogram?
How accurate are embryologists at telling which embryo will implant just by looking at them under a microscope?
How does the immune system affect the chance of IVF failing or succeeding?
What autoimmune conditions affect fertility?
Can an increased level of white blood cell and inflammation be a sign of infertility? What can reproductive immunologists do about it?
What causes most early miscarriages?
When should infertility patients by tested for antibodies?
When should infertility patients be tested for Thrombophilia?
What is involved with a workup/test for Thrombophilia?
What has a higher chance of success: 2 embryos transferred once or a single embryo transferred followed by a frozen embryo transfer of the remaining embryo?

For more information from this show and a discussion of this topic, check out Dawn’s blog on the show: Twin Obsession Continues. Please join the discussion or leave your thoughts about the show in the comments on the blog.