What role should fertility treatment play in women’s health today?
This is told by the perspective of Dr. Inge
“Obstetricians and gynecologists know that the desire to have a family ranks very high among reproductive-age women,” Dr. Inge explained.
“They also know that women’s health (physical and emotional) is not just vital to them, it is important to their families and to the children they bear. OB-GYNs provide a continuum of care that begins as a young woman reaches puberty and lasts throughout her child-bearing years. A modern fertility clinic should be an extension of that care.”
“Our role as a full-service fertility clinic is to assist these professionals in delivering this care by helping their patients who have fertility problems conceiving healthy babies. Difficulty conceiving babies is a growing problem driven by our changing environment, the fact that women must balance many roles today and the growing trend of putting off child bearing to their thirties or later.”
“Today’s fertility clinic should do more than just help women conceive. It should take steps to protect the health of mother and child. It should also provide accurate fertility diagnosis, strive to reduce the chances of a C-section delivery, assist in relieving stress when dealing with infertility, encourage patients, promote a healthy life style and teach patient-driven techniques. It should help fulfill a dream with the conception of a healthy baby while also protecting and, when possible, improving the patient’s health. It should be approached with the most economical and affordable fertility treatment first.”
“Reproductive endocrinology is a sub-specialty of obstetrics and gynecology. It is usually initiated with referrals from OB-GYNs as they seek to help their patients have the best health and conceive babies if they are having difficulty. Reproductive endocrinology is a complex, specialized field that when necessary should be capable of utilizing the latest advancements of science as they become available for clinical use and deliver a very high degree of care that recognizes the physical and emotional effects of fertility treatment and helps patients navigate through the fertility treatments.”
“Much of what we communicate to referring physicians is about their patients’ overall health and includes our recommendations for protecting or improving it so that fertility treatment will be more effective. This may include non-invasive and non-medication steps such as diet and exercise, stress reduction techniques and other ways patients can improve their chances of conceiving. It is amazing how important support from patients’ OB-GYNS is in making life style changes. We also communicate information about the fertility medications we use, how we work to keep their dosages to the minimum that will be effective, how patients respond to fertility treatments, and new developments in fertility treatments.”