- Hi, my name is Dr. Natasha Bhuyan.
I'm a family physician at One Medical,
and today I'll be answering questions about fertility.
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- [Guest] How do women donate eggs?
- First of all, if you decide to become an egg donor,
that is very generous of you.
The first step in that process,
is we usually go through a screening process.
That is where you might get asked questions
about your health history, your travel history, et cetera.
Then you start taking medications
that help get your body ready to start donating an egg.
And then the next step is we need to trigger ovulation.
You take more medications to trigger ovulation.
One of the final steps in the process of donating eggs
is you end up seeing a doctor in person,
and they will actually retrieve the eggs from you,
usually under IV sedation.
From beginning to end, it takes about three to five weeks.
- [Guest] Can egg donation cause early menopause?
- No.
There is a growing body of research out there
that shows donating your eggs and taking those hormones
does not trigger early menopause.
Your body will still have menopause at the time
it was going to anyway.
And oftentimes, menopause is driven by
our own family history.
- [Guest] Is female fertility hereditary?
- There are some conditions that are linked
to our family history that can make it a little bit harder
to get pregnant.
For example, things like cystic fibrosis
or Fragile X syndrome.
But a lot of times, we're able to get pregnant
without thinking about our family history.
- [Guest] Does female fertility decrease with age?
- Yes, female fertility does decrease with age.
We are often the most fertile in our 20s.
Every time we ovulate, we have about a 25% chance
of getting pregnant.
When we hit age 30, that changes to a 20% chance
of getting pregnant.
And then by the time we hit age 40, it's about a 5% chance
of getting pregnant.
- [Guest] Should I freeze my eggs?
- Deciding to freeze your eggs is a very personal decision.
And, for some people, it's the right decision.
It allows some people to delay child-rearing and childbirth
until they feel like they're ready.
The thing is, it's still not a guarantee that if you
freeze your eggs, you will get pregnant in the future.
I recommend that you follow up
with a primary care physician.
Talk about the risks and benefits,
and you can decide if it's right for you.
- [Guest] How do female fertility tests work?
- There are a lot of tests out there for female fertility.
There are a certain category of tests
that will look at things like your hormones, your thyroid.
Outside of lab tests, there are other things we can do,
like ordering an ultrasound and making sure
that everything looks okay.
The other test that we can do, doctors sometimes can
inject a dye into your uterus and your Fallopian tubes
to ensure that they're open and they're flowing well.
There are a whole range of tests out there
to test your fertility, starting with blood tests,
to imaging, to procedures.
- [Guest] Why do female eggs die?
- It is just a part of our lives.
So when we're born as females, we have about
one to two million eggs at birth.
By the time we hit puberty, the egg count
has already dropped to about 300,000.
As we go through puberty, I think there's a myth out there
that we only release one egg per cycle.
And that's true, only one egg goes through ovulation,
but there's often another thousand eggs during every cycle
that are attempting to go through ovulation.
We tend to lose eggs every single month.
And by the time we hit menopause,
we oftentimes don't have any eggs left.
- [Guest] Is it safe to get pregnant at 45?
- These days, it is possible to get pregnant in your 40s.
It does have some increased risks, but they're risks
that we are able to manage.
- [Guest] Can egg donation cause infertility?
- No, that is a myth.
If you decide to donate your eggs, it is a big process
because you are gonna be taking hormonal medications,
but that will not impact your long-term fertility.
- [Guest] Are you infertile with endometriosis?
- No.
Endometriosis is a condition where the tissue of the uterus
will sometimes appear in other places in your body.
Now it's true that for one-third of women
with endometriosis, it is a little bit harder
to get pregnant, but it's not impossible.
There are a lot of techniques that we can use,
and there are doctors that can help you
if you're interested in pregnancy.
- [Guest] Are you infertile while breastfeeding?
- No, that is also a common myth.
The reality is, while you're breastfeeding, your prolactin
levels are higher, and so it's often suppressing ovulation.
This is not a hundred percent guarantee.
And the reality is that after you've actually delivered
and had a child, you might ovulate before your first period.
So you might not even know when you're ovulating.
So we tell people, "When you're breastfeeding,
"if you're not planning a pregnancy,
"you should use a form of contraception."
Fertility is a really important topic in medicine
because we all have the right to plan our pregnancies
and become parents when we want to.
There's often shame surrounding people who are struggling
with infertility, or struggling with getting pregnant,
and I don't want them to feel ashamed.
I want you to feel comfortable talking
to your primary care doctor, because we're here
to help you have children, if that's what you want.
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