Doctors at fertility clinics often recommend women test their ovarian reserve to see how many eggs they have left. While the test can show how long a woman has before menopause, it was also commonly used to evaluate women’s likelihood of naturally conceiving.
The test became more and more popular as women increasingly postpone having children and as technological advances allow them to freeze their eggs for later attempts at conception. Dr. Anne Steiner set out to prove whether or not testing ovarian reserve was a significant measure of fertility and found that there was no correlation, upturning a commonly held belief and practice.
Host Frank Stasio talks with Steiner, reproductive endocrinologist and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, about the study findings and their implications.
This segment originally aired Nov. 8, 2017.