“The second class of the School of Embryology is already in full swing, and I’m truly happy and excited to be part of the journey of educating and inspiring the next generation of embryologists!

One of the things I love most about my profession is that it allows me to wear so many different hats.

• Sometimes it’s God’s hat (well, at least for a few moments in the IVF lab),
• sometimes the hat of an educator,
• a researcher,
• or a consultant.

Each role brings new challenges, fresh perspectives, and endless opportunities to learn, grow, and contribute.

But there’s something particularly rewarding about being an educator – sharing knowledge and experience, sparking curiosity, and watching the next generation of embryologists take their first steps into this fascinating field.

And perhaps that’s what I love most about embryology: even after all these years, it never stops challenging, surprising, and inspiring me.”

Stay informed with the latest updates in fertility and reproductive medicine on Fertility News.

“November is National Diabetes Month, and if you have PMOS, this conversation is about you, too.

A nationwide Danish study found that women with the condition were four times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than women without it.

They were also diagnosed an average of four years earlier.

That’s why the ‘M’ in PMOS matters.

Metabolic health has always been part of the story, even when the conversation focused primarily on ovaries and fertility.

• Insulin resistance,
• blood sugar,
• and long-term health

deserve just as much attention.

This month, we’re putting metabolic health front and center.

We’re talking about blood sugar, the importance of screening, and how to advocate for the care you deserve.

No blame. No judgment. Just better information and better conversations.

Share this with a Cyster who deserves to know more about her metabolic health.

Learn more.”

Stay informed with the latest updates in fertility and reproductive medicine on Fertility News.

“I have been reflecting recently on how we discuss IVF success rates during our medical consultations, and whether we sometimes place too much emphasis on the first treatment cycle.

We explain the treatment, what to expect from egg collection and embryo development, and naturally, the chances of having a baby.

We may even provide a personalised prediction of success, based on the patient’s age and medical history.

There is nothing wrong with this. In fact, it is an important part of good counselling.

But I wonder whether we sometimes miss the bigger picture.

A woman might leave her consultation knowing that she has a 35% chance of having a baby from her first complete IVF cycle.

She understands that success is far from guaranteed.

But does this mean that she is genuinely prepared for the possibility of an unsuccessful attempt, or for what might come afterwards?

I don’t think these are necessarily the same thing.

There are understandable reasons why doctors tend to concentrate on the first cycle.

It is the treatment we are about to provide, and its outcome will often give us valuable information about ovarian response and embryo development.

We also want patients to remain positive, rather than overwhelm them with the possibility of repeated treatment before they have even started.

This is not just my impression.

A study published in Human Reproduction in 2022 by Harrison and colleagues found that planning IVF one cycle at a time was considered normal practice among the fertility professionals interviewed.

One of the concerns was that discussing the possibility of several cycles might undermine patients’ optimism.

I understand that concern, but I am not entirely convinced by it.

In my experience, patients can be remarkably optimistic about their first IVF attempt, even when they understand that the statistical chance of success is relatively modest. We should not necessarily discourage that optimism. But perhaps we should help patients place it within a more realistic expectation of the overall treatment journey.

And I think this becomes particularly important as women get older.

1. Consider a woman in her early thirties with a favourable prognosis.

She may have a reasonable chance of having a baby from one egg collection, including any subsequent frozen embryo transfers.

2. Now consider a woman in her early forties using her own eggs.

Her chances may be considerably lower, and she may need to contemplate more than one egg collection, recognising that even repeated attempts may not lead to a baby.

In both situations, we can quote an accurate success rate. But I would argue that the more important task is to help these women develop realistic, and quite different, expectations about what treatment may involve.

For the younger woman, one egg collection may well be sufficient. For the older woman, the possibility of repeated treatment, the implications of time, and the limitations of further attempts may need to be discussed much more explicitly.

Of course, age alone does not determine prognosis.

The principle is that counselling should reflect the likely treatment journey, rather than simply provide a different percentage.

There is another aspect of this which I find particularly interesting.

By concentrating so much on the first cycle, could we actually be making an unsuccessful outcome more difficult for patients to process?

If all the discussion, planning and optimism have centred on the first attempt, its failure may feel like the failure of the entire treatment plan.

Yet clinically, that is not necessarily the case.

There may be frozen embryos available, we may have learnt valuable information, or another attempt may still offer a reasonable prospect of success. Equally, the first cycle may reveal that we should reconsider the treatment strategy.

I am not suggesting that better preparation necessarily reduces the disappointment of an unsuccessful cycle. We do not have sufficient evidence to claim that. But I do wonder whether we could help patients approach treatment with expectations that are more realistic and perhaps more resilient.

Research by McLernon and colleagues, published in the BMJ in 2016, demonstrated the importance of considering cumulative live-birth chances across complete IVF cycles.

We already recognise scientifically that IVF success cannot always be meaningfully understood through a single attempt.

Perhaps our consultations should reflect this more consistently.

This does not mean encouraging patients to commit to several cycles from the outset. We must reassess prognosis after each attempt, and sometimes the right advice will be not to continue.

Nor does it mean abandoning success rates. I believe they are useful, particularly when comparing treatment options. But I am less convinced that spending time explaining increasingly precise percentages necessarily improves a patient’s understanding.

I would rather that a patient leaves knowing whether one egg collection is reasonably likely to be enough, whether further treatment might be necessary, what that might achieve, and what the alternatives are.

And perhaps there is a more fundamental reason why we tend to concentrate on individual cycles.

As clinics, we organise almost everything around them. We schedule cycles, measure outcomes per cycle, and usually charge per cycle. It is therefore quite natural that we have come to organise much of our counselling around the same unit.

But this is how we deliver treatment, not necessarily how patients experience it.

Our patients are not primarily interested in having an IVF cycle.

They want to have a baby, and they need to understand what trying to achieve that may realistically involve.

For me, this is the important distinction.

We should continue to make clinical decisions one cycle at a time. But we should prepare our patients for the journey from the very beginning.”

Stay informed with the latest updates in fertility and reproductive medicine on Fertility News.

“Why is it so hard to build in women’s health?

Pregnancy is likely the first major health event in a woman’s life.

Jennifer McLeland also calls it ‘the great revealer.’

Things you haven’t had the time or wanted to pay attention to about your health can suddenly demand your attention.

But what you need in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy changes. Your second trimester might look different from your third.

And postpartum? Now you have a baby. A greater change if it’s your first, but even the second can bring a new set of challenges.

What she needs keeps changing.

And that’s what makes this so hard to build for.

It’s a stream of transitions that don’t all look the same.

A product can be incredibly useful in one moment, and a few months later, you need something else entirely.

So that’s what we’re doing at Mila. We’re building for each transition.

Mila in your first 10 weeks may look different from Mila in your second or third trimester.

And way different from Mila postpartum.

The other piece I keep thinking about: women do so much to take care of the baby.

But taking care of ourselves? Somehow that keeps slipping down the list.

I am guilty of this.

Ask my cofounder Lindsey Snyder, who told me to get a flu shot, get a PCP, and go to the dentist NOT once, but twice a year.

That is a lot of time! Time I don’t feel like I have.

But also that’s part of the problem we have to build for.

Care has to fit into the life someone actually has. And that life keeps changing.”

Stay informed with the latest updates in fertility and reproductive medicine on Fertility News.

“I am honored to take on the role of Interim CEO of the Vitrolife Group until Elin Frostehav joins our company in 2027.

Thank you, Jon Sigurdsson and the Board of Directors, for your trust during the transition period.

I would also like to extend a big thank you to Bronwyn Brophy O’Connor for your leadership, professionalism, and passion during your years with the Vitrolife Group! We wish you the best of success in your next chapter, Bronwyn.

A warm welcome to Elin. You will be joining an amazing company with great people and values, and we are very much looking forward to having you as our next President and CEO.

Until then, upwards and onwards to all awesome team members of the Vitrolife Group!”

Stay informed with the latest updates in fertility and reproductive medicine on Fertility News.

”One small simulation. A bigger purpose.

Following my earlier MELAD IVF-AI showcase, I’m sharing a closer look at one digitally simulated sperm-motion case, created in Blender.

Watch how its orientation and tail shape change while it remains within a small area. This is the kind of controlled example we’re exploring to help AI researchers study movement, not just recognise a shape.

Together with Tarig Gasim Mohamed Alarabi, Consultant of Clinical Embryology and Research Collaborator, we’re developing synthetic microscopy images, segmentation masks and motion data to help address the scarcity of labelled fertility research data.

This is simulated research footage, not a patient sample. Its value in real laboratories still needs validation.

Behind this technical work is a deeply human motivation: helping research move forward for people hoping to become parents.

I’d welcome conversations with embryologists, andrologists and AI researchers interested in exploring this with us.”

Proceed to the video attached to the post.

Stay informed with the latest updates in fertility and reproductive medicine on Fertility News.

”Great experience at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) 2026, presenting our latest research on AI and embryo assessment.

It was also great connecting with colleagues, exchanging ideas, and spending time with our First Fertility team. Always exciting to see where innovation is taking our field!”

Stay informed with the latest updates in fertility and reproductive medicine on Fertility News.

”My first ASRM is officially complete

Still processing (brb while I sleep 100 hours and stare at my wall alone for a while), but a few highlights:

• A great convo with Priyanka about the women we’re trying to serve better, and product-market fit
• Finally meeting so many amazing folks IRL: Elizabeth Grill, Lora Shahine, and many more!
• Bumping into Brian A. Levine, and reminiscing about my first egg freeze cycle in 2019
• Hyping my healthcare marketing pal Elizabeth Hoffman and cheering on her awesome Gaia Prom
• Finally meeting IRL with Carousel’s incredible clinical advisors, Eve Feinberg and Sigal Klipstein,
• Tons of quality time and fun with the wonderful Barb, whose support has been unwavering since Day 1
• Meeting so many wonderful women who are also exceptional builders: Melissa Teran, Alexia Arts, Sydni Meyrowitz, Kat Stillman, and many more!”

Stay informed with the latest updates in fertility and reproductive medicine on Fertility News.

”After nearly 7 years working at this company, I am so happy and grateful to announce that I am taking on the role of Kind IVF and Data Science Manager at London Women’s Clinic!

Leading the Kind IVF program and also leading the data analytics department is an honour. I hope I can continue to increase access to fertility care for those that thought they may never be able to afford it,

I hope I can continue to educate and advocate for patients, and I hope to continue contributing to clinical policy and research in the field of reproductive medicine.”

Stay informed with the latest updates in fertility and reproductive medicine on Fertility News.

”The Embryology Laboratory at Weill Cornell Medicine is actively seeking Laboratory Technicians to assist in the cryopreservation and thawing of gametes and embryos.

Candidates with demonstrated expertise in vitrification and valid work authorization in the United States are highly encouraged to apply.

Interested candidates are requested to submit their applications via email to nizanin@med.cornell.edu.”

Stay informed with the latest updates in fertility and reproductive medicine on Fertility News.