Patient Resources

OU Physicians Reproductive Medicine
You are here:
  1. Home
  2. Resources

OU Physicians Reproductive Medicine – Patient Resources

Websites

 

 

 

American Society for Reproductive Medicine – Educational Links:

 

 

 

Magazines

 

 

 

DVD

 

  • Infertility Explained: The Complete, Authoritative Guide to Everything You Need to Know on Your Journey to Parenthood. This is an award-winning two-disc DVD production providing a comprehensive resource for couples and individuals experiencing infertility at many stages in their journey. Hosted by Alice D. Domar, PhD, this program features many reknown experts and includes topics on treatments, risks, alternative methods, emotional aspects and adopting during infertility. Infertility Explained contains over 3 hours of content and topics including education and definition of infertility, explanation of fertility treatments, donor options, adoption, coping with fertility-related stressors and secondary infertility.
  • Technostorks: A Documentary on Infertility and In Vitro Fertilization. This DVD documents the true life stories of three couples as they go through infertility and in-vitro fertilization. Technostorks documents the couples’ most private moments, showing images never before seen on the screen. We follow couples into the operating room to witness egg retrievals and embryo transfers, hear their views on living with infertility, spirituality, and parenthood, and learn with them the outcomes of their IVF cycles. Throughout the film, top experts explain the technological, psychological, and spiritual aspects of assisted reproduction.

 

Books

 

  • The Conception Chronicles: The Uncensored Truth About Sex, Love & Marriage When You’re Trying to Get Pregnant by Patty Doyle Debano, Courtney Menzel and Shelly Sutphen. The Conception Chronicles shares candid humor, hold-nothing-back banter and practical advice on everything that goes along with trying to start a family: from dealing with your fertile friends to the battery of tests you may have to face; from surviving “sex on demand” to navigating the ins and outs of high-tech fertility treatments. This book will guide you through the emotional journey to motherhood, offering compassion and laughter like only your best girlfriends can.
  • Conquering Infertility: Dr. Alice Domar’s Mind/Body Guide to Enhancing Fertility and Coping with Infertility by Alice Domar. This book provides a well-written and supportive self-help manual for women who have been unable to sustain a pregnancy. The stresses that accompany infertility can impact negatively on a woman’s relationship with her husband, family members, friends and colleagues. Domar strongly recommends and fully describes such relaxation techniques as yoga, meditation, journal writing and guided imagery as useful ways to cope with infertility treatments, feelings of failure, and obsessive envy of women who are mothers. She also details how to overcome sexual and emotional tensions that spring up between married couples around this issue. Drawing on case studies and recent research indicating that the depression resulting from infertility can actually hinder attempts to become pregnant, the author advocates a positive approach based on self-nurturing that will improve an infertile woman’s outlook on life.
  • The Baby Trail: A Novel by Sinead Moriarty. Meet Emma Hamilton. She’s thirty-three, has a great husband, and loves her life. It’s the perfect time to start a family! Emma has it all mapped out: Go off the pill in December, have sex, get pregnant by January, have the baby in September. And with the help of a personal trainer, Emma figures she’ll be back in shape by Christmas. Happy New Year! But when three months of candle-scented sex fails to produce the desired result, Emma’s life becomes a rollercoaster of post-coital handstands, hormone inducing (a.k.a. sanity reducing) drugs, and a veritable army of fertility specialists. Emma and James try everything, from ovulation kits to in-vitro, but all their carefully laid plans seem to go south — in direct proportion to Emma’s plummeting self-esteem. And just when Emma feels she’s alienated everyone in her life — her twice-pregnant confidante, her singleton friend, even her own husband -events take a ninety-degree turn that will have unforeseen consequences for everyone.
  • The Right Fit: A Novel by Sinead Moriarty. Emma, the irrepressible protagonist from The Baby Trail, is back for a whirlwind trip through the upside-down world of international adoption. Emma is back, and still eager to start a family. After trying every fertility treatment in the book, as well as following a slew of advice from her friends, family, and women’s magazines, she and her husband have given up on conceiving naturally. They’re now trying international adoption, which should, in theory, be more pleasant than the fertility shots and postcoital headstands of their baby-making days. However, with the rigorous screening process — including a Russian class where they learn about their potential baby’s culture alongside competitive adoptive-parents-to-be and critical case managers — Emma finds herself once again in over her head. The pressure to prove that she and her husband are the perfect couple, and thus the perfect parents, drives him and all her friends crazy along the way.
  • Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, an Oscar, an Atomic Bomb, a Romantic Night, and One Woman’s Quest to Become a Mother by Peggy Orenstein. A very personal account of the author’s road to becoming a mother. Orenstein was a happily married 35-year-old when she decided she wanted to have a baby. While she knew it might not be easy (she had only one ovary and was heading into her late 30s), she had no idea of the troubles she’d face. First, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, fortunately treatable. After waiting the recommended recovery period, she miscarried with a dangerous “partial molar pregnancy,” so she had to avoid becoming pregnant for at least six months. Soon she was riding the infertility roller coaster full-time, trying everything from acupuncture to IVF and egg donation. She endured depression and more miscarriages while spending untold thousands of dollars. Even her very understanding husband was beginning to lose patience, when, surprisingly, she got pregnant with her daughter, Daisy.
  • A Few Good Eggs: Two Chicks Dish on Overcoming the Insanity of Infertility by Julie Vargo and Maureen Regan. The comprehensiveness of this accessible guide to managing infertility reflects the somewhat obsessive approach of the authors, who have both undergone years of infertility treatment and whose anecdotes frame each chapter. In plain language, journalist Vargo and literary agent Regan detail the impact of a variety of factors (age, weight, stress, exercise, nutrition, STDs, pharmaceuticals, recreational drugs, pollution) on both female and male infertility. They provide solid tips on finding a fertility specialist and navigating the wide variety of questions, tests and treatments readers can expect to go through, and frankly discuss the difficult choices (medical, ethical, legal, financial and emotional) parental hopefuls will have to make.