Beyond the Thyroid

How Thyroid & Hormones Impact Fertility with Dr. Oluyemisi Famuyiwa

• Dana Gibbs • Season 1 • Episode 38

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Beyond the Thyroid – Episode 38: How Thyroid & Hormones Impact Fertility with Dr. Oluyemisi Famuyiwa

In this episode of Beyond the Thyroid, Dr. Dana Gibbs is joined by Dr. Oluyemisi Famuyiwa, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and founder of Montgomery Fertility Center in Rockville, Maryland. Together, they explore how thyroid disorders, hormone imbalances, and reproductive health intersect — from infertility and egg quality to innovative fertility treatments and early family planning.

Dr. Famuyiwa shares her inspiring career journey, the science behind egg donation and preservation, and her work in building an ethnically diverse egg bank. Dr. Gibbs and Dr. Famuyiwa also discuss how hormonal health, including thyroid function, plays a vital role in conception and pregnancy success.

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Episode Highlights:

00:09 Meet Dr. Oluyemisi Famuyiwa
02:20 Dr. Yemi's Journey into Reproductive Endocrinology
03:14 The Science and Practice of Fertility
05:56 Building a Fertility Center and Egg Bank
08:41 The Egg Donation Process
11:52 Patient Experiences and Challenges
15:47 Genetic Considerations in Fertility
21:44 Early Education and Planning for Fertility
24:08 Conclusion and Resources

✨ Empower your fertility journey through knowledge, balance, and hormone health. Tune in now!

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Thank you so much for listening! Tune in on the next episode.


The medical information provided in this episode is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider regarding any medical questions or concerns.

dana-gibbs-md--she-_2_06-24-2025_181438

Welcome back to Beyond the Thyroid. I am Dr. Dana Gibbs. Today we're gonna explore the fascinating intersection of fertility with hormone health. My guest today is Dr. Oluyemisi Famuyiwa. She is a board certified reproductive endocrinologist, and obstetrician gynecologist and founder of Montgomery Fertility in Rockville, Maryland. In this episode, we're gonna talk about how thyroid disorders can impact fertility, what egg donation really involves, and why early education and planning can make all the difference on people's journey to have the family that they want. So let's dive in.

You're listening to the Beyond the Thyroid podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Dana Gibbs. I'm an ENT surgeon and hormone specialist. For years, I struggled with my own unrecognized thyroid problems before and even after I was regularly performing thyroid surgeries. Then, one day, I learned something that turned my health around and opened my eyes to the limits of mainstream medicine in treating more subtle thyroid abnormalities. I spent the next 20 years fine tuning my hormone expertise in disorders like Hashimoto's disease, perimenopause, and stress related illness. Come join me as I share this new approach to hormones that empowers you to take control of your own thyroid and hormone imbalances. Let's dive in. All right. Hi everybody. Welcome to Beyond the Thyroid. Today I have a special guest for you. It's Dr. Oluyemisi Famuyiwa. She is a reproductive endocrinologist, fertility specialist in maryland and owner of a fertility center there. And she has come to talk to us about fertility and what's fertility specialists do. And she's mostly here to educate me because I know very little about her specialty and I'm so excited to have you here. Thank you so much. Welcome Dr. Yemi. Thank you for having me. You're so welcome. So Dr. Yemi got her medical degree from Emory University in Georgia and then went on to residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Georgetown. And I'm gonna let her take it from there because I wanna know what makes somebody decide that they wanna go into reproductive endocrinology from"Oh, fascinating" in gynecology right, right, right. So I'll wind it back a little bit. I went into O-B-G-Y-N'cause I enjoyed it. It was fun. Bringing life into the world is just pure fun. But in my residency, I originally thought I was gonna be a GY oncologist, but it, I didn't like the the part where a lot of people would pass away from complicated surgery, cancer. And, and it was, it was a little hard for me. It takes a, I respect you an oncologist, boy. It takes, takes a special kind of person. It takes a, to help people who are in such bad straits. Yes. Yeah. Yes. So fertility for me is more, the raw science behind it was more fascinating. Mm-hmm. You get a lot of basic science with it. So I was actually really more interested in the science of the hypothalamus, the pituitary, the ovary, what's going on in the glands, what's, you know, how, why are people, some people be able to get pregnant, not able, and what was the science behind it? Mm-hmm. And when I was looking around, I applied to the fellowship at NIH and I got in and it was very fun. It was many, many moons ago. Back then, you know, the fellowship is a little different now. It was more hardcore science focused. Mm-hmm. So we did do a clinical part. We, you know, went to the, it was then called the National Naval Medical Center. But then we spent most of the time at the NIH doing bench research. Mm-hmm. And that can be intoxicating, right? It's, it's, you, you're, you are on the cutting edge. I was very blessed to work in a lab where a lab chief, who's since passed away was highly published, well published was able to get a lot of grants and research grants going on. So at any one time in the lab, there was always like six or seven or different types of research going on. She was actually, believe it or not, an medical endocrinologist. Mm-hmm. But she wanted her lab to focus something on the reproductive part. So I, and along with another fellow came in for that part while they still looked at other endocrine systems. Mm-hmm. So we did that and did a lot of hardcore bench research and it was very, it was a lot of fun because then we got to go present those at national conferences. Oh yeah. Which is exciting, you know, going to endocrine society. Presenting articles, presenting papers, flying over the country once we get our research. Yeah. And my lab chief, Dr. Bundy was so skilled this someone who could go home on a Friday and flesh out a paper for you by Monday, you know, with research. Extremely intelligent, brilliant woman. Mm-hmm. And was a mentor for me. So I really admired her. But, and I found out after I finished my fellowship, but I stayed an extra three years'cause that was what we were doing. We were having fun, we were doing research. Mm-hmm. And then I realized, I actually also liked. The hands-on patient part, maybe a little bit more than the bench research. Mm-hmm. Right. So it was a toss up between the two. And so the patient interaction one and I went into private practice and not just private practice. You are an entrepreneur. You built your own fertility center. Yes. There in Montgomery County. Yes. And you even built an egg bank, which correct. I do. Really? Really? Yes. Love that idea and I want you to tell the audience. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What an egg bank is and why you felt like the big national egg banks were not exactly sufficient for Right, right, right. Your patient population. Yeah. So we, the center, Montgomery Fertility Center came first and we also had, you know, we had a few egg donors here, there, the other but then I guess closer to COVID or right around COVID. A lot of our patients could not get the eggs they needed or get the donut they needed. Or if they called, they would be told, well, you only have half a batch, so you know, you can mix one egg here and two eggs there, and they want all their kids to come from the same genetic material, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So it was getting much harder to try to pair them at that time. Yeah. So we explored trying to start our own, because we're also at a very good intersection of a lot of cultural diversity where our offices, and so we did our research, we learned about it, went to the egg donor conference and then launched our egg bank and haven't looked back since. So our egg bank features a lot of different ethnicities cultural backgrounds.'cause you know, some of our patients are very specific. You know, I want an egg donor from Eritrea. I don't want an egg donor from Ethiopia. But if you look at them, they're, you know, to me they look the, almost the same. Don't say that they'll hate you for our so, or they'll say. Well, I want an egg donor who comes from the western part of Nigeria, and I don't want an egg donor who's from the northern part, or I want someone from South Sudan. You know, people are very specific. You know, I want someone who is from, you know, Gura in India or you know, so we are at an intersection of a lot of cultural diversities where we could get access to those donors. And also the other thing too is, we also have a very strong emotion. How would I say, the way we treat our donors, we, we feel very particular that the donors are doing an altruistic service. Mm-hmm. And they ought to be treated well. And we don't overstimulate our donors. We are very careful trying to restrict, okay, you do this many egg retrievals and then you're done. And we also handhold our donor. So when you get a retrieval, we make arrangements to have someone stay with you, a visiting nurse, whatever. To make sure you're okay for the night. Right. So you're not just donating your eggs and, you know, wham bam, get out the door and wham bam, get outta here. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so talk a little bit more about that.'Cause that's something that, mm-hmm. I don't know a whole lot about, and I know my audience probably doesn't. So, how do you, how do you become an egg donor? Mm-hmm. How do you get recruited to be an egg donor? Mm-hmm. So, yeah. And then what's that process like once? Yeah. Once you decide, hey, you know what, I wanna donate eggs so that somebody else can have a baby. Yeah. So you really have to think carefully about it. It has to come from a place of altruism. I think, you know, most of our egg donors started with having sisters or cousins wanted to donate for their family members. You have to see from that point of view first. Mm-hmm. And then, you have to, I always tell my donors, look in this. Day and age, you know, well, 23&me is out of service right now, but there's so much genetic material out there that someone could really triangulate and pinpoint and say, wait. You know, 18 years from now, someone knocks on your door and say, wait, you know, you donated the eggs that made me, so how are you gonna deal with that, that emotionally, right? So you have to be okay with that. There, there are certain people now pushing for open donation. So it, and I have some donors who they, and the parents by mutual agreement decided they wanna stay in each other's lives, right? Mm-hmm. I had a patient who came from a Greek background and it was very hard to find a Greek donor for her. And she did find one and she and the donor bonded became friends and they said, well, we're not gonna bother you, you know, to raise our child or anything like that, but we wanted to know you and know who you are. And she wanted the same said, you know, if our child wants to contact you in 10, 18 years from now how would you feel? And by mutual agreement they agreed on that. Right. Wow. So that's. That's very important. And then when people sign up to be donors, we do genetic screening on them. We do psychological evaluation on them as well. Because they have to understand, for instance, if you have a donor who may have a history of bipolar disorder in her family, that can be transmitted to an offspring. Mm Right. Okay. So you wanna carefully screen for those minor things and you know, I know some people go overseas and, oh, let me just get eggs is cheaper overseas. You don't know that those donors have had that psychological evaluation of the psychological screen screening? Sure, absolutely. Yeah. If you have a child who has, a serious psychological or psychiatric issue in the, in, in the future that was never screened for. Right? Mm-hmm. And most importantly, that I feel strongly about, it has to come from the women have, it has to be their free will. So when you get eggs overseas, you don't know if those women were trafficked. You don't know if they were coerced, right? Mm. And we only accept probably 2 to 3% of people that actually applied to our center. We don't take everyone. We really feel strongly about those criteria and so we turn down a lot of people, you know? Mm-hmm. And you know, if you're doing it purely for the money, maybe this is not the right bank for you. Got it. Okay. Well, so from the other side, from the flip side. Mm-hmm. So when a person comes to a fertility center When they come to you as a patient. Right. Are they automatically gonna be using donor eggs? What's the process? Because I see, yes, absolutely. I'm, I'm, I, I need more educational. So it's, it's not automatic at all. Okay. You know, most people want to use their own eggs. Okay. But they may, you may have some people who, for surgical reasons, have no ovaries, or they may also have had. Immune destruction of their ovaries. We talked about that earlier. People have premature ovarian disease insufficiency, that's not reversible. Or people have had chemotherapy in the past or they just don't have ovaries. Right. Different gender. And then there some patients who come in, they come in very late in their forties thinking, wow, I just found Mr. Right you know, now I wanna have children. And then you're testing them, you go. You don't have any eggs left or whatever is left, it's just not functioning. Yes. And that takes a lot for them to understand. Very few people can digest that. Mm-hmm. So you don't just go straight to donor. There has to be a process. And we do try, we try to use your own. You know, there's a lot of science coming out now, still experimental and mostly outside the country where they're saying, well, can we rejuvenate your ovary using stem cells, for instance, or, can we heal the ovary using platelet rich plasma? It doesn't always work, right? Mm-hmm. So it's for someone who. Maybe their last, they're like, okay, I know my last bet is going to donor egg. I just want to give it one last shot so that I don't have that regret when I'm 60 or 70 that I didn't even give it my all didn't even charge. Sure. Yeah. So there is a process. You don't just go straight to donors. You try first and we evaluate you and see what is the medical need the necessity for that. Yeah, very interesting. So I had a baby when I was 44. And the reason I was able to have a baby at 44 was because I had gone years and years. I think, and, and I'm guessing because I did not go to a fertility specialist. I was anovulatory for years. I didn't have periods because my thyroid was so messed up. Oh my gosh. And I did not have an abnormal TSH. Nobody ever cottoned on to it. And then when I finally started on thyroid medicine, it was like, oh. My periods are regular. What the heck? Yes. And I was in a fairly new relationships and I was like, Hey, I'm gonna stop taking birth control pills. Let's see what happens. And got pregnant at age 44 and had no idea. How unusual that is, that is and how lucky you are and, and how lucky I am that my baby was okay. Because, you know, the older you are, the more likely there are defects and so, you know, it was very, very unusual. Yeah. Thing that that happened, but I, I have, I have many patients that that doesn't happen for, and they went for a long time, unable to conceive or unable to carry because of thyroid problems. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh wow, I think things are better and I would like to try again to have a baby. And it's like, okay. At this point, and I know there's an age cutoff. There's an age cutoff at which you are advanced maternal age, and it's high risk, and you probably should consider doing in vitro so that you can have a genetic look at the eggs before, before they go on. And so. Yes. Yeah. I'm just, I'm so curious about what that process would be for those people. So, yeah, because we do know that as you get older, your eggs get older. So when you try to, and it's not so much the eggs get older, you have oxidative stress and damage too, you know, your eggs are frozen in a state of division, the first, you know, phase of myosis. Mm-hmm. At birth. And they stay frozen till you start menstruating where they activate and then complete division when the sperm hits the egg surface. Mm-hmm. Right to fertilize. So what happens is the DNA of the egg is lined up, ready to match with the sperm and it's frozen and head held by what's called telomere. Right to, to the end. The poles of the, the nucleus. Mm-hmm. Those telomeres, think of it like the golden be bridge, right? The, the, the cable spans the cables that are hanging. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So those, those cables, they start to snap, right? Mm-hmm. And the one of the ways I tell my patients, imagine you're placing, you are playing musical chairs. Somebody cuts up the music and you have sitting down, but you don't quite sit down and then you have to stay like that for what, 13 years or more or 40. Mm-hmm. Well, sooner or later your, your leg muscles and your bones are gonna start snapping and things. Yes. And that's what happens with those telomeres. So you can no longer present the DNA to match the DNA of the sperm correctly, so you can have, when the fertilization occur and you start to divide, some cells will divide with not enough DNA may going to the daughter cells or too much DNA parting the other way. I call it a genetic accident. The technical term is aplidin. Right? Right. And very few pls can survive. The only one that can survive is really like Down syndrome, where you have three of chromosome 21, that's Down syndrome. But even then, 80% of the Downs, babies will miscarry. 20% make it. But then there are other trisomys out there like Trisomy seven that can never be a life birth. Or Trisomy 13, you'll never get a live birth out of that. They tend, trisomy seven tends to miscarry early at seven or eight weeks. Mm-hmm. Trisomy 13 tends to miscarry more like 12, 13 weeks. Mm-hmm. And then you have any number of things that can happen, so, mm-hmm. Oh yeah. Depending on the severity, you might even have, you might deliver car to term, but then what you have is a child with severe defects, right? Mm-hmm. So, yeah. So that genetic an the ploidy. Mm-hmm. Right. I call it genetic accident. It's real. Yeah. And it gets the, the older you get, the older, the more likely it is to happen. The percentage chance goes when you up and up and up 40. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It really, it really is, is kind of frightening and you know, especially now in the environment that we have where ending a pregnancy is really not even possible anymore. Yes. You know, for some, by the time the, the fetus is old enough for us to know, okay, this fetus has a genetic abnormal, absolutely. Yes. It's too late. They won't Right. They won't. And, and also they won't let you go. Yeah. And so if you can know, okay, this egg. Mm-hmm. You know, are these eggs have been examined before they're even used, then they're safe. Mm-hmm. Then it seems like for an older person, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And also if you know that you're gonna get a miscarriage with the Trisomy seven, right? I don't know. You know, most people say, yeah, yeah, it doesn't matter. Well, it does matter. No, you know, going, going through miscarriage is a pretty horrible, traumatic it's thing and dangerous. Sometimes you get PTSD from it. You remember that last birthday. You keep saying, well, what if my child had lived and, you know, what would my child be doing now? So if, if you can save and spare a patient from that emotional trauma. And, and that PTSD then it's a good thing to know. Absolutely, absolutely. If you are, if you have an embryo that's genetically capable or not. Mm-hmm. The only time you might not do that is if you don't have any embryos to test and you just say, okay, just put what you have back in. Right, right. And then you, you, but you have to understand the risks, right? Mm-hmm. And then there are patients who've had what is called a mosaic, where you have a mixture of good and bad, bad cells. Mm-hmm. And sometimes the good cells will override the bad cells and sort of correct the embryo. And the embryo comes out normal. Mm-hmm. And I've had patients like that where we, you know, all we had was a mosaic embryo, but it was a low mosa. Mm-hmm. And that was all we had. And she didn't have, and they wanted to go ahead, so Right. And we put it in and the baby delivered. And it's actually a normal baby right now. Fantastic. So that can happen, happen as well. Fantastic. Yes, yes. Yeah. Fantastic. But in those situations, I can see how you might end up then wanting to go for a donor egg. Exactly, yeah. For people who I, we've had some patients where you know, if they have what is called a translocation. Mm-hmm. So if the parent has all the genes, but there's a little bit of a mix up, so maybe half of chromosome 11 is stuck on chromosome six and chromosome six half is stuck on, so. Technically they have all the components. They have their full DNA. Mm-hmm. So they don't have any symptoms. But when it comes to fertilizing and creating embryos mm-hmm. That translocation now becomes a big problem. Big problem. Yeah. So, so they get embryos that are just not genetically normal at all. Yeah. They don't have enough DNA in some and they have twice as much in some and it's, exactly, yeah. They can't. So those patients, they can't necessarily survive, consider Absolutely. Absolutely. Interesting. Very interesting. Alright, well I guess is there anything else in particular about the process of coming through to infertility treatments that my patients would know that I don't even know enough to ask you? So, so I think early education is, it's all about early education. So now I partner with a lot of my primary care colleagues, my GYN colleagues, and I say, look, someone's been trying for six months. Send them over. Someone has some genetic problems in the past. Send them over. They have medical problems in the past. Thyroid problems, you know, endometriosis, fibroids. Don't wait. Send them over. You know, and I've also worked with some of my colleagues where I've trained them with a preliminary workup that I want them to get started. Yeah. So when I'm seeing them, you know, half the workup is done. It cuts down a lot of time. Yeah. The worst thing you can do is delay your time to seeking treatment, and then come to find out you have something that could have been corrected two years before. Yeah. Right. But they never sought help on time. Right. So if you are, or even, you know, for young women nowadays, professionals, doctors, lawyers, engineers, if you think you're going to, you want a family in the future, come here. Fertility especially, get your egg frozen. Yeah. Pre-plan, talk about it. Yeah. And, and that's, you know, what I'm doing now, I'm, I'm writing a book on that. I think for, for a lot of physicians. And, and I think if, if you were to ask me when I was 20, was I gonna have kids, I would've said, no. Forget that. Not gonna do it. You know? And then here I am when I'm in my forties going, well, hi, I, I met the right guy. And, and here we go. And you know, and I should have, I should have frozen the eggs 20 years ago. Exactly. Should have done it. But anyway, yes. Alright, super. So we wanna take that. I Super. So how can people find you? I know you have your own podcast, so Yes. My podcast, the name of it is yes. The fertile Talks with Dr. Famuyiwa. It's Fertile Talks. Okay. On Spotify apple Podcast, Amazon, anywhere you get to your podcast, fertile Talks, you can go to our website at Montgomery Fertility Center one word.com. Mm-hmm. And we'll be happy to you can hit the Contact US button there right. And we'll reach out to you. Okay. So anybody who lives in the Washington DC area Yes. And wants an absolutely fabulous fertility specialist check'em out'cause that's, thank you so much. That's really cool. And the egg bank, I, I am. So excited about your egg bank. Thank you. I just think that's the coolest thing ever. Thank you. All right. Thank you guys for listening to be beyond the thyroid. I know this was a little bit off of our usual topic for today, but thank you for sticking with me and hanging in there. And don't forget I have the, thyroid Clarity Checkup course coming up. If you are interested in finding out if you have thyroid abnormalities that have not responded to the usual labs or shown up on the usual labs, come and find me at danagibbsmd.com/checkup. And get on the waiting list for that. It's gonna be super helpful, so I will talk to you guys all next time. Thank you for listening to this episode of Beyond the Thyroid. If you found this information valuable, it would mean so much to me to take a few seconds and give the podcast a five star review. It helps other people who need this information find the show and it's really easy. Just search and click on the name of the show, Beyond the Thyroid, and scroll to the bottom to ratings and reviews. I truly do read and appreciate. Remember, when it comes to hormones, there will always be more to discover, so follow the show so you get the next episode as soon as it's released. And if you or someone you care about needs a caring doctor to help figure out how to heal hormone problems that other doctors have dismissed, check out my website at www. danagibbsmd. com. And if you're not a physician, please keep in mind, while I'm a doctor, I'm not your doctor. The content of this podcast is my opinion and it's for educational and entertainment purposes only. This is not meant to be individual medical advice and you should consult your own physician for any medical issues or diagnoses that you may have. I look forward to continuing this journey with you beyond the thyroid.