00:00It's Jeff and Amy in the morning on Coyote Country with Dr. Peterson of Nevada Fertility Center.
00:06Hey doctor, thanks for joining us.
00:08Good morning, pleasure to be here.
00:09Now a lot of people know Nevada Fertility Center maybe for the first time on Coyote Country
00:14because of the last two weeks we've been talking about bless you with a baby.
00:18And your practice has been a blessing to us in order to hop on board to do this
00:23because it's so unfortunate how little it's spoken about
00:27but how many women and couples go through infertility.
00:30And this was something Amy and I, as cheesy as it sounds,
00:33we've wanted to give away a baby for like a long time.
00:37So like you're our idol because you get to do this for a living.
00:42And yeah.
00:43So doctor, tell us a little bit into the world of infertility.
00:46What are the lesser known things?
00:48How many people are affected by this?
00:50And you probably see tons of stories every day.
00:52Yeah, well it's honestly it's one of the most rewarding fields to be a part of.
00:56It is quite common for people to have infertility issues.
01:00And I think it's increasingly becoming something that people talk about
01:04but historically it's been something that's been pretty taboo.
01:07So about one in six couples are affected by infertility.
01:10Wow.
01:11So that's quite a few.
01:12Most of us know some people intimately that are having struggles with infertility
01:16and often just don't feel comfortable talking about it.
01:18So we see a wide variety.
01:20It can be anything from an even split between male and female factor.
01:25But we try to get to the roots of the problem and figure out how to help them go home with the baby.
01:31I don't think that that's talked about enough either is that it's both men and women.
01:37And you think that's maybe a 50-50 split?
01:40Yeah, so it's interesting.
01:42We kind of tend to blame the women when it comes to infertility.
01:47Maybe because they do all the work we just assume it's a women's problem.
01:50I'm not sure why we've done that as a society.
01:52But about 50% of infertility does have a male component to it.
01:56Wow.
01:57And that is one of your goals at Nevada Fertility Center is to get down to the root of the problem.
02:02See which, who is, I don't want to say at fault, but who, right? I mean, where the problem is.
02:08Yeah, right.
02:09Yeah, we definitely try to avoid the term fault.
02:11But yeah, there's so many different etiologies.
02:13We're really just trying to do an exhaustive investigation to make sure we get to the root of the problem
02:18and help people find a way forward.
02:20And that's what you're going to be doing for a family that listens to our radio station here.
02:24If you want to nominate somebody you love or your family that's going through something like this,
02:29you can text BABY to 5971027, get the links, and you can explore Nevada Fertility Center for yourself,
02:35even if you aren't one of our chosen couples.
02:37I mean, I think something that I noticed, and when I called, I've said this before,
02:41I cold called to try to find a clinic that would be willing to work with us,
02:46and I spoke to Ronnie at your front desk who is not only working for Nevada Fertility Center,
02:51she also went through IVF, and I think it's amazing.
02:54And when I told her this idea and I said, who can I talk to?
02:57Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. What can we do? Let's put you in touch with the right people.
03:01And it just goes to show that the entire staff, your entire team there,
03:05is committed and compassionate towards the patients that are coming in.
03:09Yeah. Honestly, I feel really fortunate to work with the people that I do,
03:12because you hit the nail right on the head.
03:15Compassion is kind of the name of the game,
03:17and we really focus our efforts on finding people who care about the patient
03:21and want to help them through this process.
03:23And the fact that a number of our staff have actually been through infertility issues themselves,
03:29gives them that added edge to be able to be there for you and help you through the process.
03:33So when should somebody reach out to Nevada Fertility Center?
03:37Like, how long in the process?
03:39How long do you have to try for before you guys are like,
03:41okay, maybe there is an issue? Is there a time limit?
03:44Yeah. So if you're under the age of 35 and you're having regular cycles,
03:48then you can continue trying on your own for about a year.
03:52And then you should probably reach out to a fertility specialist.
03:55If you're older than the age of 35, that should be cut down to about six months,
03:58because there's a finite window of time when women are successful at reproducing.
04:03So you do want to get in touch with us sooner rather than later if you're above the age of 35.
04:08If you don't have regular cycles, see us immediately.
04:11Yeah, and I think that there's something that you brought up earlier.
04:15I think there's a little bit of a stigma, and you mentioned that, you know,
04:17women are being more and more open about their own infertility issues.
04:21But as a man myself, and, you know, I'll get married here on April 30th, so 10 days from now.
04:26And family is definitely something that I've always said I wanted to be a dad
04:29and something that me and my fiance have discussed at length about.
04:33But I do think that male infertility is something that is not discussed enough about.
04:38And, you know, as two men in the room right here, you know that men's mental health
04:42is something that men don't talk enough about in general.
04:45So when it comes to that, I think it's really awesome that you're able to provide that support system,
04:49get down to understanding what's going on, and then probably even create a network of people that,
04:54hey, you can go talk to other men, and you can be a part of our group and our family here.
04:58Yeah. It's historically not something men like to talk about, but it's definitely important.
05:03And we could take a cue from our female counterparts who are talking more about it to kind of get involved in the process ourselves.
05:10And on that token, too, there's a lot of male hypogonadism that's being treated these days.
05:16So a lot of guys who are having symptoms of low testosterone.
05:20We're finally seeing people starting to reach out for treatment for that.
05:24But with that, sometimes we can cause infertility issues.
05:27So by going on testosterone, it actually shuts down spermatogenesis.
05:31So in the process of trying to fix some of these things, sometimes we're actually creating some infertility issues for men.
05:37So if you are one of those who's considering testosterone treatment, come and see us. Come for some sperm before you do so.
05:42Wow. That is sweet.
05:44Now, I don't know if you can tell, Doc, I don't really use testosterone very often.
05:49I still sound like I'm going through puberty over here at age 28.
05:52But that's great for people to know that are listening.
05:55Now, Doctor, when it comes to, you know, the families, this has been the hardest thing.
06:00We've had quite a few entries here. So many heartbreaking stories, so many difficult stories.
06:06But for you, you know, you deal in these every single day, but it's the success stories, I'm sure, that keep you going, right?
06:12Is there one, and you can leave names out of it, of course, but is there one story that always kind of you go back to,
06:18and you've probably done thousands of these, but...
06:20Or that you keep in touch with, right?
06:22Yeah. Is there one person or one family you can think of?
06:25Honestly, a lot come to mind.
06:27Right? You do it all the time.
06:29Each one is individual, and they're all kind of special cases for me.
06:32So I don't have any particular one case that I would go to because, honestly, they're all incredibly motivating
06:39and come from such different backgrounds that, you know, I draw from each of those
06:44depending on the next situation that I'm treating.
06:46Now, I heard there was like a tree, right? Like a family tree, you guys.
06:50Can you tell us a little bit about that? And I will try not to cry because I heard about it the first time.
06:55No, it's a wonderful thing. When the patients are successful and they've taken a baby home,
07:00they usually come back and see us, which is so wonderful for us because we like that, you know,
07:05close communication, getting to see the process through to the end because this is really about creating families.
07:10So we love to be a better part of that process and see the end product.
07:13But they'll come back and visit with us and we put their name on the tree for those who have been successful in taking home the baby.
07:20Wow. That is like, I mean, that is like comparable to ringing the bell after you finish the country tree.
07:25Yeah, absolutely.
07:26You know, it's that powerful. It's that beautiful.
07:28Nevada Fertility Center, Dr. Peterson on with Jeff and Amy in the morning.
07:31He's the one that's going to be making this dream come true when it comes to their clinic there of blessing somebody with a baby here in Coyote Country.
07:39So if that screams you or somebody in your family that's been going through this, a friend, you can text BABY to 702-597-1027.
07:47Doctor, thank you so, so much for joining us. We really appreciate you taking the time.
07:51Well, thank you for letting us be a part of this. We're excited.
