A personal professional journey: the real history of restorative and responsible reproductive medicine

Key Findings

• Rebar writes that proponents concentrate only or largely on the female, give undue weight to endometriosis, fertility awareness approaches and lifestyle changes, and may postpone pregnancy needlessly.
• The essay reports that surgery for endometriosis or adhesions inside the abdomen in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before IVF became widespread, led to pregnancy in only approximately 25% of women.
• Approximately half of women with unexplained infertility eventually have an infant without treatment, and a continuing attempt to conceive ends in a child for approximately 70% of women with recurrent miscarriages.
• The essay states that IVF shortens the time to pregnancy, citing two ASRM Practice Committee documents, and calls this especially true in unexplained infertility and important for older women.
• Rebar states that board-certified IVF doctors receive training in the diagnosis and care of the full range of reproductive disorders and infertility, and he calls their practice responsible restorative reproductive medicine.