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The desire to have children is independent of sex, sexuality or gender identity and there are many different paths to parenthood. Yet there remain many barriers for LGBTI+ people at work.

This Thursday, 4 November, City Fertility and Rainbow Fertility partners with Out Leadership for a conversation at the Out Leadership 7th Australian Summit to explore real changes businesses can make to support LGBTI+ employees and their families.

Essentially, the human menstrual cycle is a pattern of changes that occur within the ovary and uterus for the purposes of reproduction. These changes involve a complex interaction of hormones that allow for follicles to mature and eggs to be released (ovulation) before hormones are produced to nourish an embryo should fertilisation have occurred. If fertilisation hasn’t occurred, the uterine lining is shed through menstruation.

Fertility specialists will commonly request an Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) blood test as one of the first medical assessments for new patients.

There are two main reasons we use this test – firstly as an initial indicator to evaluate a patient’s egg reserve and secondly to test their response to fertility medication.

Importantly, the results of an AMH test is best interpreted by a fertility specialist, and the gold standard test to determine egg reserve is an antral follicle count (AFC) – a transvaginal ultrasound that counts ovarian antral follicles. An AFC is done ideally in the first half of a woman’s cycle, before ovulation.

What is the Anti-Mullerian Hormone test?

City Fertility supports the Jean Hailes Women’s Health Week (6-10 September) which is dedicated to all women across Australia to make good health a priority.

If you’re currently focusing on your fertility health or planning, then there are plenty of things you can do to enhance your fertility and a range of treatments available if and when you need it.

The desire to become a parent is independent of sex, sexuality or gender identity, and there are also many different paths to parenthood, whether as a couple, shared or sole parenting, and they also include adoption, foster care and surrogacy.

Planning and starting a family is deeply personal, emotional and exciting. But sometimes it can be a stressful experience when your plans for a family are not going as expected, and days of significance that bring families together, like Fathers’ Day, can be tough.

Future dads, as you know, you’ve got an equally important role to play in achieving a healthy pregnancy, and your sperm needs to be just as healthy as women’s eggs to get the best chances of a pregnancy.

If you are planning a pregnancy you are probably wondering if it is safe to have the COVID-19 vaccine and if so, should you have it now, wait until you are pregnant or have it after pregnancy?

The advice is that you can receive the Pfizer mRNA (Cominarty) vaccine if you are either planning a pregnancy or if you are currently pregnant.

The reasoning for getting vaccinated is that the potential risk of severe outcomes associated with actually contracting COVID-19 is significantly higher for pregnant women and their unborn baby.

Knowing when the best time is to conceive each month is an important factor in helping achieve a successful pregnancy. Unfortunately, some patients miss getting this right which is delaying a positive outcome for them sooner rather than later.

Put simply, the timing of conception is critical to success, and by learning to understand your body’s menstrual cycle and the signs of ovulation, it may help you feel more in control.

Ovulation is when the egg is released from the ovary and is a female’s most fertile time of the month.

By Dr Devora Lieberman
Dr Devora Lieberman, Clinical Director, and Specialist City Fertility Sydney CBD provides some guidelines for keeping yourself in shape for a healthy pregnancy. Learn more.

By Dr Lauren Saunders, specialist at City Fertility Melbourne Bundoora

Dr Lauren Saunders provides essential information on maximising your chances of success during fertility treatment.