Where should someone embarking on fertility treatment begin?
Dr Greene: One of the first questions I ask all my patients, and I encourage everyone to consider, is this: In an ideal situation, what would your family look like, how many children would you have, how far do you want them spaced apart and how important are these goals? By the time people get to see a specialist, many are already so frustrated and might say, ‘at this point, we’ll settle for one child,’ or, ‘I’m getting so old, I want to have two at one time.’ These are compromises. If you think of your goals, then you can create a plan and see how reasonably close you can come to achieving that goal. If a center is able to tailor the treatment to each person’s unique goal, that’s where the personalization comes. LT: What do you mean when you say fertility centers do not individualize treatment and rely too heavily on protocols? Dr G: Most centers have less than 10 protocols, which are like recipes. You do this combination of drugs at this dosage for X number of days. There are also di
