📖 Core Medical Terms
Core medical terms are the foundational vocabulary of fertility medicine. Mastering these concepts — from fertility and infertility to gametes and embryonic development — helps patients understand their diagnosis and engage meaningfully with their care team.
📌 Start Here — Key Core Medical Terms
Infertility
Infertility is defined as the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months of regular, un…
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capacity to conceive a pregnancy and produce offspring. It refers to the ov…
Oocyte
An oocyte is the female reproductive cell — the egg — produced by the ovaries. At birth, a female ha…
Embryo
An embryo is the developing human organism from the moment of fertilisation through approximately th…
All Core Medical Terms (24)
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capacity to conceive a pregnancy and produce offspring. It refers to the ov…
Fecundity
Fecundity is the biological ability to reproduce, often measured as the probability of achieving a c…
Subfertility
Subfertility refers to reduced fertility with a prolonged time to conception, but without a complete…
Infertility
Infertility is defined as the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months of regular, un…
Primary Infertility
Primary infertility is defined as infertility in a person or couple who has never previously achieve…
Secondary Infertility
Secondary infertility is defined as the inability to achieve a clinical pregnancy in a person or cou…
Fecundability
Fecundability is the probability of achieving a clinical pregnancy within a single menstrual cycle, …
Reproductive Endocrinology
Reproductive endocrinology is a medical subspecialty focused on the hormonal regulation of reproduct…
Gamete
A gamete is a mature reproductive cell that contains a haploid set of chromosomes (half the normal d…
Oocyte
An oocyte is the female reproductive cell — the egg — produced by the ovaries. At birth, a female ha…
Egg
Egg is the lay term for the oocyte — the female reproductive cell released from the ovary during ovu…
Sperm
Sperm (spermatozoa) are the male reproductive cells responsible for fertilising the female oocyte. T…
Embryo
An embryo is the developing human organism from the moment of fertilisation through approximately th…
Ovarian Reserve
Ovarian reserve refers to the quantity and functional potential of remaining oocytes in the ovaries.…
Egg Reserve
Egg reserve is the lay term for ovarian reserve — referring to the remaining pool of eggs available …
Egg Quality
Egg quality refers to the developmental competence and chromosomal normality of oocytes — specifical…
Semen
Semen is the ejaculated fluid produced by the male reproductive system, containing sperm cells and s…
Zona Pellucida
The zona pellucida is a glycoprotein shell surrounding the oocyte and early embryo, approximately 15…
Oxidative Stress
Oxidative stress occurs when the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) — unstable molecules in…
Maternal Age
Maternal age is the age of the female reproductive partner at conception or delivery. It is the sing…
Paternal Age
Paternal age is the age of the male partner at conception. Unlike in women, sperm production is cont…
Testicular Sperm
Testicular sperm are sperm cells retrieved directly from testicular tissue via surgical biopsy (TESE…
Epididymis
The epididymis is the tightly coiled duct on the posterior surface of each testis where sperm underg…
What is a Blastocyst
A blastocyst is a Day 5–7 embryo containing 100–200+ cells, characterised by a fluid-filled blastoco…