Cape Fertility

Cape Fertility Cape Fertility
Dr Sulaiman Heylen
Dr Paul le Roux
Dr Nomathamsanqa Matebese
Dr Lizle Oosthuizen
Dr Joanne Pottow

Cape Fertility is the prime destination for fertility treatment in South Africa. All treatment modalities are available, AI, IVF, ICSI, S***m and egg donation,PGD and minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery. It is the largest clinic of its kind in South Africa and we speak English, Afrikaans, French, IsiXhosa and have a Portuguese translator at the clinic.

Short answer, no. It's a myth that's stuck around far longer than the evidence supports.Several large reviews have compa...
28/08/2026

Short answer, no. It's a myth that's stuck around far longer than the evidence supports.

Several large reviews have compared bed rest against getting up and moving normally straight after transfer, and found no difference in pregnancy rates either way. If anything, a couple of studies have leaned slightly in favour of moving around rather than staying still.

Go back to your normal day. Walk, work, potter around the house, whatever you'd usually do. Rest when your body actually asks for it, not because you're worried that standing up will undo anything.

There's a mental health angle too, lying still for days tends to feed anxiety rather than ease it, and the two week wait is hard enough without adding that.

Book a consultation with the team at Cape Fertility if you'd like to talk through exactly what to expect after your own transfer.

📞 +27 21 674 2088
📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.capefertility.co.za

Fertility treatment rarely moves on the timeline you'd choose. Cycles get delayed, results take longer than expected, an...
26/08/2026

Fertility treatment rarely moves on the timeline you'd choose. Cycles get delayed, results take longer than expected, and the wait can feel like its own kind of test.

But the months pass either way, whether you're actively working towards this or not. That's not a reason to rush a decision you're not ready for, it's just a reminder that time spent trying is time that was going to pass regardless.

Wherever you are in the process, you haven't fallen behind. You're exactly as far along as this particular journey allows.

Book a consultation with the team at Cape Fertility, we're here whenever the timing feels right for you.

📞 +27 21 674 2088
📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.capefertility.co.za

During pregnancy, a small number of fetal cells slip across the placenta and into the mother's bloodstream. From there, ...
24/08/2026

During pregnancy, a small number of fetal cells slip across the placenta and into the mother's bloodstream. From there, researchers have traced them into maternal tissue all over the body, the liver, lungs, heart, even the brain. In some studies, these cells have turned up in a mother's blood 27 years after birth, and in her heart 24 years later.

Nobody fully understands yet what these cells are doing there, but early research points to a possible role in tissue repair, and some scientists think it might even help explain why women tend to outlive men.

Every pregnancy, however it comes about, leaves something behind.

Book a consultation with the team at Cape Fertility, we love sharing the science behind this journey.

📞 +27 21 674 2088
📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.capefertility.co.za

Genetic testing, known as PGT-A, screens embryos for chromosomal abnormalities before transfer. The evidence for it is s...
21/08/2026

Genetic testing, known as PGT-A, screens embryos for chromosomal abnormalities before transfer. The evidence for it is strongest in a few specific groups: patients over 38, anyone who's had repeated miscarriages, and those who've already been through several unsuccessful transfers. In these cases, testing can improve the odds per transfer and help make sense of which embryo to prioritise when there's more than one.

Outside of those groups, the picture is less clear cut. Current research hasn't shown that testing improves overall live birth rates for every patient, and it does add cost, extra time, and a biopsy step for each embryo.

There's a practical side too. Waiting on lab results adds another stretch of uncertainty, and results aren't always a clean yes or no.

Whether testing makes sense for you comes down to your age, your history, and how many embryos are on the table. Book a consultation with the team at Cape Fertility, and we'll go through it properly with you.

📞 +27 21 674 2088
📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.capefertility.co.za

Fertility treatment can feel like one storm after another: the waiting, the appointments, the results you can't control....
19/08/2026

Fertility treatment can feel like one storm after another: the waiting, the appointments, the results you can't control.

But roots grow in exactly that kind of weather. The resilience you're building right now, the patience, the way you've learned to hold hope and hard days at once, doesn't disappear once treatment ends. It stays with you.

Wherever you are in your journey, you're stronger for having weathered it, even on the days it doesn't feel that way.

Book a consultation with the team at Cape Fertility, we'd be glad to help carry some of the weight.

📞 +27 21 674 2088
📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.capefertility.co.za

Your chromosomes don't just get split and passed down as-is. They shuffle through independent assortment, which alone cr...
17/08/2026

Your chromosomes don't just get split and passed down as-is. They shuffle through independent assortment, which alone creates over 8 million possible combinations per cell, and then swap segments with each other through something called crossing over. Stack those two mechanisms together and the number of possible outcomes is, for all practical purposes, endless.

Every embryo formed is its own unique combination of maternal and paternal genetics, a one-time event that can't be exactly repeated even from the same two parents.

It's a small reminder of how much complexity is already at play before treatment even begins.

Book a consultation with the team at Cape Fertility if you'd like to understand more about the science behind your own cycle.

📞 +27 21 674 2088
📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.capefertility.co.za

A fresh transfer happens straight after retrieval, in the same cycle. That's fine for a lot of patients. But if you prod...
14/08/2026

A fresh transfer happens straight after retrieval, in the same cycle. That's fine for a lot of patients. But if you produced a high number of eggs, or you have PCOS, your hormone levels are often still elevated at that point, and going ahead with a fresh transfer raises your risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS).

Freezing gives your hormones time to settle before the embryo goes back in. Your uterine lining tends to be more receptive as a result, and for high responders specifically, research shows frozen transfers can match or even outperform fresh ones, with meaningfully less OHSS risk.

Neither approach wins by default. Your egg count, your hormone levels, and your overall response to stimulation all factor into it, and that's exactly what our team reviews before recommending one over the other.

Book a consultation with the team at Cape Fertility, let's look at your numbers together.

📞 +27 21 674 2088
📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.capefertility.co.za

Written well over a century ago, and it still holds up.Fertility treatment asks you to hold hope and fear at the same ti...
12/08/2026

Written well over a century ago, and it still holds up.

Fertility treatment asks you to hold hope and fear at the same time, often in the same appointment. That's not a contradiction, it's just what this journey tends to feel like.

You don't have to choose one to feel valid. You're allowed to be hopeful and scared, hopeful and tired, hopeful and unsure, all at once.

Book a consultation with the team at Cape Fertility, we're glad to hold some of that hope alongside you.

📞 +27 21 674 2088
📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.capefertility.co.za

It's a claim we hear a lot, and it's worth unpacking properly.Here is what actually happens: your genetic s*x, XX or XY,...
11/08/2026

It's a claim we hear a lot, and it's worth unpacking properly.

Here is what actually happens: your genetic s*x, XX or XY, is fixed the moment s***m meets egg. What isn't fixed yet is the physical structure. For the first six weeks or so, every embryo's go**ds and external ge****ls look identical, regardless of genetic s*x. Embryologists call this the bipotential or undifferentiated stage.

From there, it comes down to a single genetic switch. In XY embryos, a gene called SRY activates and starts building te**es. Those te**es then produce hormones that shape the rest of male development. If that switch never fires, the same starting structures develop along the female pathway instead.

So the popular version isn't wrong so much as it skips a step. Every embryo starts neutral. Only some go on to receive the male signal.

This is the kind of detail our embryology team lives and breathes daily. Book a consultation with Cape Fertility if you'd like it explained in the context of your own treatment.

📞 +27 21 674 2088
📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.capefertility.co.za

Why does South Africa mark 9 August as Women's Day?It goes back to 1956, when 20 000 women walked to the Union Buildings...
09/08/2026

Why does South Africa mark 9 August as Women's Day?

It goes back to 1956, when 20 000 women walked to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest the pass laws forced on black South Africans. Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn led that march, and it's where the chant "wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo" (strike a woman, strike a rock) comes from.

That kind of resolve doesn't only show up in history books. We see a quieter version of it every day, in the women who keep showing up for scans, injections, and two week waits, appointment after appointment, without knowing how the story ends.

If you're in the middle of that right now, this month is for you too.

Book a consultation with the team at Cape Fertility, we'd be glad to be part of your story.

📞 +27 21 674 2088
📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.capefertility.co.za

Address

1 Wilderness Road
Cape Town
7708

Opening Hours

Monday 08:00 - 17:00
Tuesday 08:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 08:00 - 17:00
Thursday 08:00 - 17:00
Friday 08:00 - 17:00
Saturday 09:00 - 12:30

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