In this episode — Fertility specialist Gabriela Rosa joins to talk about couples the healthcare system has given up on: two-plus years trying with multiple failed IVF cycles. They cover her seven-year study of 544 patients (78.8% took home a healthy baby), why infertility gets diagnosed by a stopwatch instead of an investigation, the real success rates behind IVF and egg freezing, and why male fertility is half the equation.

Guest: Gabriela Rosa, DrPH, MPH (Clinical Effectiveness, Harvard T.H. Chan School), MScM (Reproductive Medicine & Human Genetics, University of Sydney), BHSc (ND) — fertility specialist; founder and clinical director of The Rosa Institute; author of Fertility Breakthrough: Overcoming Infertility and Recurrent Miscarriage When Other Treatments Have Failed (2019) and Eat Your Way to Parenthood. @gabrielarosafertility on Instagram.

Chapters

00:00 — Who fertility treatment is really for (cold open)

01:11 — Welcome and introduction

02:47 — Gabriela’s path into fertility

07:00 — Two patients who changed everything

12:32 — The cohort study: 544 patients, seven years

17:17 — Trying, perseverance, and pleasure

19:08 — When trying to conceive kills your sex life

23:06 — Reframing the fertility timeline

24:16 — Population fertility and the egg-freezing pitch

29:11 — IVF’s real success rate

31:56 — Male fertility and age

38:30 — Sperm banking, and why men don’t think about it

40:08 — Life expectancy and deferred maintenance

42:01 — “What is new under the sun? Nothing.”

45:34 — Unexplained infertility: a diagnosis based on time

48:18 — The leaking toilet

52:19 — Richard’s hospital story

54:19 — Existence vs. non-existence

56:08 — Close