Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal condition that affects about 10 million women worldwide. If you have PCOS, your androgens (male hormones) are higher than they are in women without PCOS. You may also have higher levels of the hormone insulin, which affects blood sugar and stimulates the production of androgens. Your levels of the […]

When you read that up to 12% of women are infertile, and think of same-sex couples who long for a baby of their own but can’t have one themselves, you wonder if you’re ready to donate your eggs to make their dreams come true. But egg donation isn’t as simple and fast as sperm donation. If […]

Even though up to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, most people aren’t comfortable talking about them. In a 2018 article for the British publication, The Telegraph, Michelle Obama opened up about her own miscarriage, her belief that she’d somehow “failed,” and how she didn’t realize at the time how common miscarriages actually are. The experts at Columbia Fertility […]

If you’ve seen the movie “The Kids Are All Right,” you know that anonymous sperm donation might not stay anonymous once the children reach majority age. This is more true than ever, thanks to websites like 23andMe® that find your biological relatives through a DNA sample. When you become a sperm donor, you’re not just making a quick […]

Every year, about 1.3 million women in the United States enter their post-reproductive phase of life, known as menopause. Menopause brings many benefits, but also a range of symptoms that you may find uncomfortable, due to a drop in essential hormones, such as: Estrogen Testosterone Progesterone These hormones were responsible for your secondary sex characteristics, but also […]

If you’ve seen a photo of a baby in the womb, you’ve seen a sonogram. A sonogram is a print-out or digital image created by ultrasound, which is a type of high-frequency sound wave that your doctor or technician bounces off your inner organs. Even though most people are familiar with the sonograms that parents […]

Up to 15% of all couples are affected by infertility, which is the inability to get pregnant after one year of unprotected, regular sex if the woman is under 35, and after six months if she’s over 35. Problems with the male reproductive system affect 40–50% of those couples.  Although our fertility experts at Columbia Fertility Associates are OB/GYNs, they also diagnose and […]

About 11% of women and 9% of men in the United States experience fertility problems in their reproductive years. You’re considered to be an infertile couple if the woman is under 35 and you’ve tried to get pregnant through unprotected intercourse for at least a year, or if the woman is over 35 and you’ve been trying for at […]

When you think about unbalanced hormones, you probably think about older women who are going through perimenopause or menopause. But your hormones can shift out of balance during any stage of your life. Because your hormones control so many of your body’s functions — including reproduction — too much or too little of them can […]

On June 8, 2020, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) released an updated set of guidelines for fertility treatments during the current health crisis. Because we’re in the midst of a pandemic the size of which the world hasn’t seen in more than a century, nobody is yet certain about how coronavirus and the […]