The importance of good nutrition during pregnancy cannot be stressed enough. A new prospective cohort study has followed over 11,000 women in the Nurses’ Health Study II (with its predecessor, the Nurses’ Health Study, among the largest investigations into the risk factors for major...

Studies into the links between glycemic index and fertility are not new. The connection between high insulin levels and disruptions in hormone levels (particularly testosterone in the case of PCOS) is well documented. Now, a new study has expanded the nutrition question to include...

A new study from China has explored an issue of rapidly increasing importance: the effects of air pollution on early miscarriage rates. The study followed pregnant women in Nanjing, China, where the annual mean concentrations of air pollutants are three times higher than the...

A successful IVF cycle is dependent not just on having good quality embryos, but also on a successful implantation in the uterus. More and more fertility clinics are recommending frozen embryo transfer (FET) over fresh transfers – meaning that the transfer is delayed by...

As the research flurry into recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) continues, new research has emerged around glucose metabolism and RPL – particularly regarding insulin resistance. A recent study from the Vali-E-Asr Reproductive Health Research Centre in Tehran, Iran, has found that standard testing of fasting...

Celiac disease (CD), an auto-immune condition triggered by the consumption of gluten that damages the small intestine, is a known factor in fertility and reproductive health even in asymptomatic cases, as I discuss in this post and in my online programs.  Now, a recent Italian study...

In recent posts I have been sharing research on recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) and male fertility factors, particularly sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) rates (the quality of DNA inside of the sperm cell). DNA fragmentation is known to result from oxidative stress, and typical treatments...

As I discussed in this post and in my online program, screening for sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) is emerging as an important tool in assessing male fertility, as it provides information beyond the count and shape of the sperm found in standard sperm analysis, giving critical...

I’ve written lots of posts about the importance of the microbiome on fertility and pregnancy, including the importance of probiotics before frozen embryo transfer. Now, a study by researchers in China and Australia has highlighted the impact of probiotics (particularly lactobacillus) on sperm parameters...

The number of years from menarche (first menses/period) until first pregnancy is a known risk factor from pregnancy – the longer the interval, the higher the risk. This means that delayed pregnancies, or the early onset of menses, are both risk factors for breast...