Beyond Second Opinions: Making Choices About Fertility Treatment by Judith Steinberg Turiel
This text is both an expose of the risks, errors, and distortions surrounding fertility medicine and an authoritative guide for people seeking treatment. The book takes the reader beyond hype to hard data on diagnoses and treatments. Judith Steinberg Turiel, a consumer health activist and herself a veteran of fertility treatments, uses the most up-to-date medical literature to shed new light on difficult decisions patients face today and on reproductuve questions society must begin to address now. Those who are seeking a more balanced perspective to help them make better, more informed decisions will find information about current reproductive interventions - from simple fertility pills to dazzling experimental options - as well as a discussion of the non-medical forces (economic and political) that shape an individual's treatment choices and reproductive choices. Despite quantities of information showered upon patients, they remain woefully misinformed; some fertility treatments may actually reduce chances for a successful pregnancy and trheaten a patient's health. Turiel looks beyond surface claims to the real information, often uncovering counterintuitive findings and sometimes scandalous revelations. She exposes a realm of unregulated expansion, unscientific experimentation, and scandal over stolen embryos.