Ask Our Doctors

Supporting Your Journey

Our Medical Directors are outstanding physicians that you will find to be very personable and compassionate, who take care to ensure that you have the most cutting-edge fertility treatments at your disposal. This is your outlet to ask your questions to the doctors.

Dear Patients,

I created this forum to welcome any questions you have on the topic of infertility, IVF, conception, testing, evaluation, or any related topics. I do my best to answer all questions in less than 24 hours. I know your question is important and, in many cases, I will answer within just a few hours. Thank you for taking the time to trust me with your concern.

– Geoffrey Sher, MD

Search the answers our doctors have already given

Fill in the following information and we’ll get back to you.

Answers from our doctors

Search 1,009 questions patients have already asked, or narrow them by topic.

Latest answers

Page 49 of 68

IVF Failure & Pregnancy Loss May 8, 2023

Recurrent pregnancy loss- known graves disease

I am 36 y/o and have five pregnancies, with one living child delivered at 36 wks (spontaneous birth). Hyperthyroidism caused by Graves disease is my only chronic medical condition. My husband and I have both been genetically tested. The RE… — Sade S.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

Currently, with few exceptions, practitioners of assisted reproduction tend to attribute “unexplained and/or repeated” IVF failure(s), almost exclusively to poor embryo quality, advocating adjusted protocols for ovarian stimulation and/or gamete and embryo preparation as a potential remedy. The idea, having failed IVF, that all it takes to ultimately…
Embryos & Genetic Testing May 8, 2023

Implantation failure

Hi doctor , I have pgt a tested embryos which failed in 3 FET. My frozen embryos are over now and I’m diagnosed with ssa ro positive and all other tests negative. I was given intralipids last two times and… — Rakshitha R.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

Implantation dysfunction is unfortunately often overlooked as an important cause of IVF failure. This is especially relevant in cases of unexplained IVF failure, recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL), and in women with underlying endo-uterine surface lesions, thickness of the uterine lining (endometrium) and /or immunologic factors. IVF success rates…
Uterine & Endometrial Health May 8, 2023

Compromised Lining

I lost my Ivf twins at 19 weeks due to incompetent cervix. My OB refused to give me a d&c until 3 months postpartum because she didn’t believe I had retained products even though I told her my body was… — Michelle K.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

Clearly the retained products of conception (for such a long time period), caused endometritis that compromised the basal endometrium, rendering it unable to respond optimally to estrogen. In my opinion, the D&C was probably delayed for too long. This may or may not be reversible (see below). It…
Embryos & Genetic Testing May 5, 2023

Recurrent Pregnancy Loss and Recurrent Implantation Failure

We have been dealing with fertility issues for 18 months. Last year, I had three early miscarriages (all at less than 8 weeks). These miscarriages occurred back-to-back-to-back within a 7 month period. We were referred to an REI. Since then,… — Morgan H.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

Implantation dysfunction is unfortunately often overlooked as an important cause of IVF failure. This is especially relevant in cases of unexplained IVF failure, recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL), and in women with underlying endo-uterine surface lesions, thickness of the uterine lining (endometrium) and /or immunologic factors. IVF success rates…
Immunology & Implantation May 4, 2023

Hashimotos

Is it true that some women with hashimotos will have no issues getting and staying pregnant? While others will suffer from recurrent loss? What causes this discrepancy? — M J.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

Between 2% and 5% of women of the childbearing age have reduced thyroid hormone activity (hypothyroidism). Women with hypothyroidism often manifest with reproductive failure i.e. infertility, unexplained (often repeated) IVF failure, or recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). The condition is 5-10 times more common in women than in men.…
IVF Failure & Pregnancy Loss May 4, 2023

Ivf failure

Dear Dr Sher, I have listened to the egg whisperer podcast and I am currently a fertility patient in a clinic in Germany. I had a successful ivf in 2020 (2nd attempt) which resulted in a healthy baby and are… — Michelle G.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

Implantation dysfunction is unfortunately often overlooked as an important cause of IVF failure. This is especially relevant in cases of unexplained IVF failure, recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL), and in women with underlying endo-uterine surface lesions, thickness of the uterine lining (endometrium) and /or immunologic factors. IVF success rates…
Early Pregnancy & hCG May 3, 2023

About beta hcg level

Sir my hcg level is about 413.2 and yesterday i reached a hospital and they df o a ultrasound bt no sac found and they told me a small cyst like seen in tube. Iam very tensed to hear that.… — Anjumol T.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

It is most likely too early to be able to detect a gestational sac in the uterus or in the tube. Give it another week and re-test. Of course, if you experience any severe pain or bleeding go straight to the ER. Good luck! Geoff Sher ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:…
Early Pregnancy & hCG May 2, 2023

B-hcg

Hi, I doubt my pregnancy test tru urine, so I proceed to blood pregnancy test the result is 93 mIU/ml Whats the meaning of that?? Thankyouu and Godbless — Jemalyn T.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

It is positive. It needs to double in the next 2 days to be encouraging! Good Luck! Geoff Sher I know of no medical announcement associated with the degree of emotional anticipation and anguish as that associated with a pending diagnosis/confirmation of pregnancy following infertility treatment. In fact,…
Embryos & Genetic Testing May 2, 2023

transfer

Hi, I am preparing for a transfer next week. My doctor says lining is good. I am wondering what you think of bed rest after a transfer? Also, I am stressed about this working and have a busy work and… — Fay K.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

Good luck! In my opinion there is no need for extended bed-rest post-transfer. Unquestionably, the IVF doctor’s expertise in performing embryo transfer ranks as one of the most important factors that will determine IVF outcome. It takes confidence, dexterity, skill, gentility and above all, experience to do a…
Embryos & Genetic Testing May 1, 2023

Implantation Failure

Hi! I have had two FETs with embryos made with my wifes egg and sperm donor, PGT tested and good quality. Both times did not work. I am 28 years old, have had many tests, Hysteroscopy, Uterine Imaging, etc and… — Ann S.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

Whenever a patient fails to achieve a viable pregnancy following embryo transfer (ET), the first question asked is why! Was it simply due to, bad luck?, How likely is the failure to recur in future attempts and what can be done differently, to avoid it happening next time?.…
Ovarian Stimulation & OHSS May 1, 2023

Lupron and retrieval

Hi How are you? I'm currently going through my second round of IVF and had a chemical pregnancy with a pgt normal embryo. I had endometritis before and they cleared it with cipro. I changed my doc since and my… — Lynn C.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

Respectfully, I would not recommend depot Lupron prior to FET. After a few months, it can interfere with endometrial receptivity by down-regulation estrogen receptors. AND yes! I would recommend another ER sooner rather than later to try and " make hay while the sun still shines". Endometriosis is…
Infertility Basics May 1, 2023

Difficulty in getting pregnant

Hello. I am a 30 years old married female. It's my third months of trying to conceive. I have regular periods and I am also tracking my ovulation. I have intercourse daily. But still I am not getting pregnant. What… — Anna A.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

3 months of trying is far to early to be of concern. You should give it bat least 12 months. Geoff Sher ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: I am attaching online links to two E-books which I recently co-authored with my partner at SFS-NY (Drew Tortoriello MD)....... for your reading pleasure:…
Uterine & Endometrial Health May 1, 2023

persistently thin utering lining

Hi Dr. Sher, I am hoping you could help me know what to do next. I just turned 37 and did my first IVF cycle. We retrieved 6 mature eggs. Prior to this I had been trying for about 6… — Mira S.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

It was as far back as 1989, when I first published a study that examined the correlation between the thickness of a woman’s uterine lining (the endometrium), and the subsequent successful implantation of embryos in IVF patients. This study revealed that when the uterine lining measured
Hormones & Ovulation Apr 28, 2023

Rising progesterone before starting PIO in transfer cycle

Hi Dr Sher, I hope you're well. I'm so glad to see you are still doing this forum! Your advice helped me tremendously three years ago when I embarked on my first (successful) FET. I'm about to embark on my… — Rhian T.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

Respectfully, I do all my FETs under hormonal control. That avoids such issues. Until less than a decade ago, most women undergoing IVF would have embryos transferred to the uterus in the same cycle that the egg retrieval was performed (“Fresh” Embryo Transfer). This was because embryo cryopreservation…
IVF Failure & Pregnancy Loss Apr 28, 2023

Repeated ivf failures

Hi there I just turned 43 in January and live in Vancouver. Over the last year I have done 5 standard ivf cycles and 1 mini ivf cycle and have never gotten a blastocyst on any cycle. We did a… — Kat L.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher answered

Whenever a patient fails to achieve a viable pregnancy following embryo transfer (ET), the first question asked is why! Was it simply due to, bad luck?, How likely is the failure to recur in future attempts and what can be done differently, to avoid it happening next time?.…

Ask Our Doctors

Supporting Your Journey

Our Medical Directors are outstanding physicians that you will find to be very personable and compassionate, who take care to ensure that you have the most cutting-edge fertility treatments at your disposal. This is your outlet to ask your questions to the doctors.

Latest answers

Location

Follow Us