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Infertility is on the rise.  Infertility affects 7.3 million Americans.  This translates that one in six couples today will struggle with infertility — the biological inability to conceive or carry a pregnancy to full term.  Many factors can contribute to this staggering and continually growing statistic.  Most common are delayed child bearing, advanced maternal age, medical conditions, sexually transmitted diseases, obesity, and environmental factors.   As women continue to work and delay having children, their needs with regard to infertility treatment have also continued to grow.

The infertility diagnosis can be devastating and demoralizing. Unable to become pregnant, women often feel inadequate, alone, and depressed.  Infertility treatment is costly, and invasive.  Success rates are not guaranteed and insurance benefits may be limited. The emotional, physical, and financial stressors associated with the infertility process are often challenging and usually overwhelming, particularly to accomplished career-women who are used to controlling their own destinies, and getting the results they want.

While infertility affects the male and female population at almost identical percentages, it is typically the woman who undergoes the vast majority of invasive and costly medical procedures.  These procedures require intense daily monitoring over the course of several weeks, and sometimes months, thus making it necessary to miss work for such treatments as pre-scheduled ultrasounds and blood draws, followed by evening injections of hormones.  Adding insult to injury, these treatments then cause increasing mood swings, physical bloating, and discomfort.  It is no wonder that undergoing infertility treatment has been labeled a full-time job.

Age matters in many aspects of life and definitely in the creation of life.  Women are most fertile between the ages of 20 to 28 with their fertility decreasing in half by the time they reach 35 years of age.  By age 45, only a 1% chance remains each month of conceiving naturally. This is a startling fact considering the average age a woman has her first child has risen to a record high of 25.1 years with 20% of women waiting until they are 35 years old to begin their family.

An increasing number of women choose to delay childbearing due to further schooling, career choice, or are waiting to find their perfect partner.  Many individuals are choosing to be single parents.  While those choices are understandable and personal, as women naturally age so do their ovaries; affecting their fertility.  Oocyte cryopreservation, commonly known as egg banking, generally provides women up to the age of 38 a chance to stop their biological clock and effectively plan and preserve their fertility for the future.

This fertility preservation is advantageous because as women mature the quality and quantity of their given lifetime supply of eggs decreases, resulting in eggs that are more prone to genetic abnormalities. Chromosomal abnormalities can lead to increased incidences of infertility, miscarriage, and birth defects.  Since pregnancy is possible at later ages, egg freezing increases opportunities for biological offspring and pregnancy in women beyond 35 years of age.

About Mindy Berkson and Lotus Blossom Consulting

As one of the first infertility consultancies in the United States, Lotus Blossom Consulting, LLC was founded by Mindy Berkson in 2005 after her own personal battle with secondary infertility.  With more than a decade of experience at physician’s offices and egg donor and surrogacy agencies, Berkson assists individuals working through the oft-challenging roadblocks of infertility by providing the best information and resources available to them from around the world – all in one location.

Lotus Blossom Consulting works with individuals on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration clients’ emotional, physical, and financial infertility issues.  Lotus then develops an individualized, comprehensive plan to help clients make informed decisions. Mindy is a sought-after infertility expert and has appeared on countless media programs and speaker panels educating audiences on the topic of infertility and surrogacy.  For more information about Lotus Blossom Consulting, LLC, call toll free at 877.881.2685, email mindy@lotusblossomconsulting.com or visit the website.