Show Notes
Send us Fan Mail IVF terms like back-to-back cycles, DuoStim, double stimulation, and accelerated IVF are often used interchangeably—but they don’t mean the same thing. And confusing them can lead to unrealistic expectations. In this episode of Taco ’Bout Fertility Tuesday, Dr. Mark Amols breaks down what these terms actually mean, how they differ, and—most importantly—when one approach may make sense over another. We talk about why doing IVF twice doesn’t magically improve egg quality, how o...
More from Taco Bout Fertility Tuesday
Send us Fan Mail “I feel like nobody is treating my problem. They just keep putting a Band-Aid on it.” If you have PCOS, you may have said this yourself. In this episode, Dr. Mark Amols takes the complaint seriously and explains what birth control, metformin, letrozole, and lifestyle changes actually do. He covers why symptoms can return when you stop treatment, and what the history of ovarian surgery tells us about treating PCOS without curing it. He also says plainly when a prescription is ...
Send us Fan Mail You had 15 mature eggs and ended up with three embryos. What happened? In this episode, Dr. Mark Amols explains IVF attrition: the step-by-step drop-off from eggs retrieved, to mature eggs, to normal fertilization, to blastocysts and beyond. Your final embryo count tells you how many chances you have. Where the drop-off happened tells you what to ask about next. We cover: Why an MII (mature) egg is the starting line, not a guaranteeConventional IVF vs. ICSI, and what the evid...
Send us Fan Mail Why were some of your eggs immature after an IVF retrieval—and does it mean your trigger was wrong? In this episode of Taco Bout Fertility Tuesday, Dr. Mark Amols explains what low egg maturity really means, why a report may show GV, MI, and MII eggs, and why “we triggered too early” is only one possibility—not an automatic conclusion. Not every follicle and egg develops on the same clock. Dr. Amols walks through how follicle-size patterns, trigger timing, the body’s response...
Send us Fan Mail Why did 14 eggs retrieved become 10 mature eggs—and only 7 normally fertilized? In this episode, Dr. Mark Amols explains what IVF embryology reports really mean. Learn how egg meiosis works, why an MII egg is considered mature, and what GV (germinal vesicle), MI, and MII tell us about an egg’s development. We also break down polar bodies, pronuclei, normal 2PN fertilization, and what it can mean when the lab sees extra polar bodies, 0PN, 1PN, or 3PN. Most importantly: why a m...
Send us Fan Mail In Part 3 of our three-part Egg Freezing Series, Dr. Mark Amols answers one of the most overlooked questions in fertility preservation: Once you are finally ready to have a baby, should you actually use your frozen eggs? The answer is not always yes. If you froze eggs when you were younger and are still relatively young with good fertility when you are ready to conceive, it may make more sense to try with your current fertility first and keep those younger frozen eggs as a ba...