Wicked Slippery

Another Friday afternoon in the center of the known universe (Washington, DC) and the town is shutting down under threat of snow. Yes, that is correct....threat of snow. No snow has actually fallen from the sky but all local school systems have shut down and all after-school events are cancelled. The only thing missing from today's Snowpocolypse is.....("wait for it")...snow.

The sign in the photo is actually from a state which does get winter weather and miraculously enough continues to function in a near normal fashion in spite of the cold, white stuff.

I have taken it upon myself to catch up on many comments that I failed to respond to since November. For this lack of responsiveness I am very sorry. However, I fully understand the desire of patients to receive prompt and accurate answers to pressing questions. So I have attached the Health Tap widget to this blog. I have been responding to posts on the Health Tap website for a couple of months. Seems like a pretty interesting concept. Doctors respond to patient questions but both are limited in the character counts..kinda like Twitter but with a medical slant. The answers are provided by physicians who have passed some sort of screening process ("Convicted? No, never convicted.") and other physicians can agree or disagree with your answers. An interesting concept by itself.

In any case, please feel free to head over to Health Tap (www.healthtap.com) and don't forget to do your best to support your favorite RE physician...but if he/she is not on Health Tap then feel free to throw a little love my way so my DocScore increases...not that it's a competition or anything. Plus, you can check out all my witty and pithy answers to the questions I have chosen to answer on the site.

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all! Well 2012 is in the can and 2013 is full of promise. In looking back over nearly 6 years of blog posts I notice that I have rarely posted on January 1 so here's hoping that I can keep up the pace so that the 17 individuals who read this blog will not be disappointed with a paucity of posts by yours truly.

It is important to be careful what you wish for....Last week I was on vacation and laying in bed listening as freezing rain lashed the windows. We were on vacation with our expended family and my brother-in-law's sons had rarely had the opportunity to play in the snow. I was so disappointed that they were only getting freezing rain instead of snow. Ice storms they can get in North Carolina but snow would be something different entirely.

Suddenly quiet descended and I looked out the window and saw absolutely nothing....complete whiteout! The snow fell and fell and fell. By the end of the week I was pretty sick of shoveling the fluffy white stuff but the boys had a great time sledding and having snowball fights. I guess the lesson to remember here is: Be careful what you wish for...you may get that wish after all. I am constantly sharing this advice with patients who request twins. Twins can be a lot more overwhelming than shoveling snow 5 times a day...and this comes from a man who doesn't personally have twins!

So let me now put on my Jean Dixon hat and make some predictions for 2013!

Prediction #1: DrG will be starving
DrG will follow the Special K diet for about 4 months. Seriously. I tend to do this every year as a means to overcome the chocolate overload associated with the holidays. For months on end I defy the odds as drug reps tempt me with delicious lunches from Lebanese Traverna and California Tortilla Factory among others. Eventually, I cave and start cheating. But my waistline usually improves a bit.

Prediction #2: Natural Cycle IVF
More patients will continue to pursue Natural Cycle IVF. Given the state of the economy and increased visibility of those patients successful with NC IVF, I predict that this approach will continue to appeal to a wide range of patients.

Prediction #3: Increased Use of PGS
The use of Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) will increase exponentially. For many patients the ability to transfer only genetically normal embryos will represent the most efficient way to achieve an ongoing pregnancy. Given that the cost of PGS is about the same as the cost of a Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) it will make sound economic sense to screen embryos and thus reduce the rate of implantation failure and pregnancy loss. Remember that PGS will not improve the cumulative pregnancy rate but its use will reduce the number of embryos needed to be transferred in order to establish and ongoing pregnancy.

Prediction #4: Reduced Rate of Twins and Triplets
The increased use of NC IVF and PGS will assist us in maintaining our extremely low rate of IVF twins. Although some twin pregnancies are unavoidable (identical twins from single embryo transfer), the rate of non-identical multiples will continue to drop. Currently, Dominion Fertility has one of the lowest rates of embryos per transfer in the nation and therefore one of the lowest twin rates. Single embryo transfer is better for everyone.

Prediction #5: DrG Will Lose More Hair
Shocking but true. I will continue to be increasingly follicularily challenged. I wont dwell on this sad point but there is always Hair Club for Men....

So there you have them. My 5 predictions for 2013. I would post another 5 but I need to go eat a bowl of Special K...with Red Berries. Happy New Year!

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