Video: Medical History and Physical Exam of a Fertility Workup

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0:00:00.000,0:00:03.000 (text on screen): Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source 0:00:03.000,0:00:05.000 Ask the Experts 0:00:05.000,0:00:10.000 What is included in the medical history and physical exam during a fertility workup? 0:00:10.000,0:00:17.000 Dr. Jane Frederick, HRC Fertility: It's important to spend time to ask the patient: What is her history? What medications has she been on? 0:00:17.000,0:00:21.000 Does she have any medical problems? Has she had any surgery in her past? 0:00:21.000,0:00:28.000 Her genetic history. How many babies her mother had. Whether her mom went through an early menopause. 0:00:28.000,0:00:32.000 Those are very critical in the history taking. 0:00:32.000,0:00:37.000 So, I would start out with a very careful history, and then I would do a physical exam. 0:00:37.000,0:00:45.000 And it's important, at the physical exam, to look at the patient's weight, because we see a lot of data coming out 0:00:45.000,0:00:51.000 showing that the underweight and the overweight patient do play a role in the success of pregnancy. 0:00:51.000,0:00:56.000 So, I do check a BMI on the patient, based on her height and weight. 0:00:56.000,0:01:03.000 And I will give her some recommendations on what's a good BMI that will help her prognosis. 0:01:03.000,0:01:10.000 I always look at how many pregnancies she's had in the past. So, patients who recurrently miscarry, 0:01:10.000,0:01:19.000 there are some specific tests that I would run on that patient to determine what is the reason for her recurrent miscarriage. 0:01:19.000,0:01:30.000 Patients who've had surgery in the past may have tubes that have been blocked from fibroid surgeries or cysts that have been removed. 0:01:30.000,0:01:37.000 Or, if a patient has endometriosis, that's a good indicator that we should be checking some special tests 0:01:37.000,0:01:46.000 to determine whether her endometriosis is worsening, the same, or maybe has gotten better. 0:01:46.000,0:01:52.000 We spend a little time talking about the hyterosalpingogram, which is a dye test, and the sperm analysis. 0:01:52.000,0:01:54.000 (text on screen): Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source