A little while ago I said that there were no fertility treatment options available for us because of the kind of infertility we have. That was not exactly true. You see, along with infertility treament comes a long list of ethical questions. For a "fertile," the answer to infertility is "just adopt" or "just do IVF" or "become a foster parent" or "you can have my kids for a weekend, that will cure you." Or even better, "you can just be the best auntie and uncle to our kids. You'll be the favorite because you don't have your own kids to distract you." Those these statements are often made to be an encouragement, they are often said out of ignorance. Not the negative type of ignorance - this is not to be taken as an insult - but the kind of ignorace that just comes from either misinformation or unawareness. Our battle with infertility has evoked such a strong passion for awareness for both adoption and infertility itself in me. I see other childless couples and my first thought is not "when are they going to have kids?" but rather, "I wonder if they are going through the same thing as us?" It seems that the journey to parenthood is not always cut and dry. Some of us have to work really hard, spend a lot of money, and deal with ethical issues that we otherwise would probably not have thought of. I'd like to discuss some of the different treatment options available to "infertiles" and the ethical ramifications that go along with them. There is a lot to discuss, so this may encompass the next few posts.
Let's talk about IVF - Where does life begin? With the fertilized egg or the implanted embryo? Is it ok to freeze embryos? Well, that depends where life begins. Did you know that when embryos are frozen, up tp 50% will not survive the thawing process? So then, if they are micro babies, are we then sending 50% of our children to certain death by freezing them? (I really don't have answers for this, these are just questions that I have that I think merit discussion and/or consideration). IVF costs around $10,000 per cycle (less for subsequent cycles if you freeze extra embryos from the first). It involves giving yourself daily injections, which sting and make you hormonal, moody and bloated. Egg retrieval involves a needle going up your woohoo and sucking the multiple mature follicles from the drugs off your ovaries. Apparently, this is "uncomfortable" - a.k.a: hurts a lot. Then fertilized embryos are put back up your woohoo a few days later and two weeks later you will either get your period like normal or be pregnant. If, shockingly, you actually become pregnant, it might be with multiples in which case your fertility doctor will recommend that you abort some of them so that at least one fetus has a better chance of making it to birth. Just do IVF? I'm not so sure.
