Lori D. Homa, MD: Gaps in Knowledge for Fertility

There remains a need to learn about why some women are seemingly plagued by fertility issues.

“For our fertility field one of the biggest things that we want to know is implantation issues, implantation failure, early losses, issues with the uterus that we do not fully understand,” Lori D. Homa, MD, Allegheny Health Network, said in an interview with HCPLive®. “We can put a perfect embryo in there and sometimes patients still have implantation failure or early losses that are not explained by a chromosomally normal embryos being placed in the uterus.”

Homa said along with the need to focus research on pinpointing why some of these issues occur, she would like to advocate for some of the misconceptions and gaps in knowledge patients may have.

The biggest of these gaps in knowledge centers around age.

“Female fertility drops off rather exponentially in the 40s,” Homa said. “After 43 there is really a less than 5% chance of achieving a pregnancy. Women don’t always know that.”

Homa said 1 option that many women should consider as they age is freezing their eggs ahead of time. She said this could be a “great insurance plan” for all women to consider as they go through their careers.