News

By Dr Sascha Edelstein When you are thinking about starting a family, it can sometimes feel as though there is an endless list of things you should be doing first: eat perfectly, exercise more, sleep eight hours, take the right supplements, drink less, stress less, and somehow get everything in order before you even begin. But good preconception health does not require perfection. This year’s Jean Hailes Women’s Health Week

By Dr Lisa Lee (PhD), Scientific Director, Thrive Fertility When people think about IVF, much of the attention naturally falls on the egg and the developing embryo. But sperm contributes half of the genetic material required to create an embryo, so the quality of the sperm we work with matters too. In the IVF laboratory, there are now several techniques available to help embryologists prepare and select sperm for fertilisation.

By Dr Sascha Edelstein For many years, infertility has often been thought of as a women’s issue. It’s a perception that’s still remarkably common, but it’s simply not accurate. Infertility affects around one in six couples, and when you look at the data, male factor is involved in up to half of those cases. In around 20 to 30 per cent of couples, it is the sole cause. Despite this,

If you’ve been through one or more unsuccessful IVF cycles, you’ll know how heavy that experience can be. It’s natural to ask whether something is being missed, or whether anything could be done differently before trying again. It’s one of the most common and most important questions, and it deserves a thoughtful answer rather than a simple one. I recently had the privilege of presenting alongside naturopath and fertility educator

By Dr Sascha Edelstein If you’ve recently heard that PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) is being renamed PMOS (Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome), you may be wondering what this means for your health, fertility and future treatment options. The short answer is reassuring: the condition itself has not changed, the way it is diagnosed has not changed, and the treatments available have not changed. What has changed is the name. Following a

By Dr Sascha Edelstein When you’re going through IVF, it’s natural to want as much information as possible about your embryos and your chances of success. One option that often comes up is pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT). For some patients, it can be a very useful tool. For others, it may not meaningfully improve outcomes. The key is understanding what PGT can tell us, what it can’t, and when it

By Dr Sascha Edelstein Over the past decade, egg freezing has become a much more visible part of the conversation around fertility. Advances in reproductive medicine and cryo-preservation mean that people now have options that simply didn’t exist for previous generations. But it’s important to understand clearly what those options can, and cannot, offer. When patients ask me about egg freezing, my goal is to provide the information that they

As the year draws to a close, many people gather with family. For some, this season brings celebration. For those facing infertility, the year may have been shaped by transfers that did not result in a pregnancy or by pregnancy loss. Holiday time can amplify what feels absent, marking another year without the child long hoped for. This can make this time of year feel especially heavy.

“Infertility can feel like an invisible grief. While more people are talking openly about it, some people still feel uncomfortable discussing it.”

When you’re trying to grow embryos, every moment counts. In an IVF lab without time-lapse incubators, embryos are periodically removed from the incubator to the microscope, at key developmental points – for example, to confirm fertilisation, assess cell division on day 3, or evaluate blastocyst formation on day 5. Each time they’re moved, even for a short inspection, small changes in temperature, humidity, and gas levels will introduce subtle stress.

Why cost matters, but isn’t the whole story. When you’re hoping to start a family, every decision matters, and few are as daunting as choosing a fertility clinic. The truth is, cost doesn’t tell the whole story. When considering IVF or other fertility treatments, cost is often one of the first things couples weigh up. Treatment fees can vary widely between clinics, and it’s not always clear what’s included, or