Fertility and Sterility On Air - Roundtable: Restorative Reproductive Medicine
Fertility and Sterility On AirShow Notes
Welcome to Fertility & Sterility Roundtable! Each week, we will host a discussion with the authors of "Views and Reviews" and "Fertile Battle" articles published in a recent issue of Fertility & Sterility. This week, we welcome Dr. Richard Paulson and Dr. Jamie Kuhlman to discuss Restorative Reproductive Medicine (RRM) — a field that describes itself as focusing on identifying and treating the root causes of infertility rather than bypassing or suppressing natural reproductive processes. In this episode, we explore whether RRM represents a truly novel approach to fertility care, examine its religious and political influences, and consider the potential risks the movement poses to access to evidence-based fertility treatments, including IVF. Dr. Richard Paulson holds the Alia Tutor Chair in Reproductive Medicine and is Professor and vice-chair in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Southern California, where he is also Director of the Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. He is past president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and of the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society. Dr. Paulson has authored over 300 scientific articles and has received more than 35 awards for research and scientific presentations. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of "Fertility & Sterility Reports." Dr. Kuhlman is a Licensed Psychologist and the Owner of Courageous Path Counseling, PLLC, in Nashville, TN. She specializes in infertility, postpartum, and maternal mental health through individual counseling and psychological evaluations for third-party reproduction. She is also a PRIMED Scholar with the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, focusing on advocacy within reproductive healthcare. The unscientific nature of the arguments of "Restorative Reproductive Medicine" and why we need to understand them https://www.fertstertreports.org/article/S2666-3341(25)00111-4/fulltext The illusion of reproductive choice: how restorative reproductive medicine violates reproductive autonomy and informed consent https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(25)00596-5/fulltext
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In this month's Fertility & Sterility: Unplugged, we take a look at articles from F&S's sister journals! Topics this month include: the diagnosis, pathophysiology and clinical management of OHVIRA syndrome (02:05), the potential role of time lapse embryoscopy in assessing developmental competence of 3PN zygote (15:35), and a case report of a child born with trisomy 21 after risk reducing PGT and NIPT (26:56). F&S Reviews: https://www.fertstertreviews.org/article/S2666-5719(26)00015-0/abstract F&S Science: https://www.fertstertscience.org/article/S2666-335X(26)00051-0/abstract F&S Reports: https://www.fertstertreports.org/article/S2666-3341(26)00110-8/fulltext
Welcome everyone to Fertility and Sterility roundtable. I'm your host, Dr. Emily Barnard, and I'm joined by my producer and co-host, Dr. Ben Peipert. Today, we will be discussing the Fertile Battle featured in the August 2026 edition of Fertility and Sterility entitled "Fresh vs frozen donor oocytes in contemporary assisted reproductive technology." We are fortunate to be joined by three of the esteemed authors of this Fertile Battle publication as well as the Editorial Editor to discuss the issue in depth. Dr. Eric Widra currently serves as Executive Senior Medical officer and Vice President, Development, for Shady Grove Fertility and USFertility, respectively. He was formerly Chief Medical Officer of SG Fertility, and Associate Director of the Combined Federal Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Dr. Widra served on the SART Executive Committee and on the ASRM Practice Committee and was a contributing author to dozens of ASRM Practice Committee documents. He is currently an Editorial Editor for Fertility and Sterility. Dr. Oisin Fitzgerald is a research fellow at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Dr. Fitzgerald's work in reproductive medicine focuses on the use of real-world data (e.g. electronic medical records, registry data) as sources of evidence for open questions in clinical practice and to build prediction models that inform consumers and clinicians on IVF success rates. Dr. Kiley Hunkler is a recent graduate from fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology at the National Institutes of Health. She earned her masters degree from the University of Oxford and enjoys working on curriculum development and advancing patients' access to care.
Take a sneak peek at this month's Fertility & Sterility! Articles discussed this month are: Articles: Male factor infertility diagnoses, but not male age, significantly affects the yield of usable embryos in donor oocyte cycles Preconception dietary patterns in association with live birth and pregnancy loss: a couples-based approach Systemic assessment of allele dropout in preimplantation genetic testing for monogenic disorders: incidence, detection, and clinical testing strategies Infertility treatment associated with peripartum hysterectomy: a population-based cross-sectional study Deconstructing triglyceride glucose-body mass index in normal-weight women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome
Take a sneak peek at this month's Fertility and Sterility! Articles discussed this month are: (02:58) Optimal counseling and treatment of patients undergoing therapeutic donor insemination (04:20) Do we still have a Scientific Mission? (05:31) Propensity score matching is too good to be true (06:30) ASRM Position Statement on Rho(d) Immune Globulin Administration in the First Trimester (08:16) Artificial intelligence in the in vitro fertilization laboratory: a committee opinion; Clinical Embryology in the United States: Current Landscape and Considerations for Professional Development and Standardization (10:07) Segmental aneuploidy in human embryos is frequently mosaic with evidence of meiotic origin: insights from trophectoderm and inner cell mass analyses (21:51) Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidy in Donor Egg Recipients Does Not Decrease Number of Embryo Transfers Needed to Achieve Live Birth (35:40) Reproductive Outcomes in Programmed Ovulatory versus Modified Natural Cycle FET: A Propensity Score–Matched Analysis of Prospective and Retrospective Cohorts (43:05) The efficacy of frozen-thawed oocytes compared to fresh oocytes: real-world evidence (50:03) Intergenerational fecundity and infertility: a cohort study
Fertility and Sterility on Air is at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology 42nd Annual Meeting in London (Part 3)! In this episode, our hosts Micah Hill and Eve Feinberg cover: (00:56) Cost-to-baby as a percentage of median household income predicts population-level access to assisted reproductive technology: a global health economics analysis of affordability with Steve Rooks (12:50) Intrapatient variability in the number of retrieved oocytes and ovarian response categories between consecutive in vitro fertilization cycles with Ariel Hourvitz (30:11) Restoring Shugoshin-1 prevents chromosomal errors in aging human oocytes with Agata Zielinska (45:32) Restoring fertility after gonadotoxic treatment: first successful autologous transplant of immature cryopreserved testicular tissue in the human with Veerle Vloeberghs and Ellen Goossens