(no subject)

[ste_noni]

I read this article this morning while waiting for Frisco to fall back asleep. Basically, it says that IVF is now so "successful" that many doctors are encouraging women to transfer less embryos in order to reduce the rate of multiple births. It got me thinking - I read a lot of infertility blogs (leftover from my own struggle to have a child) although I think everyone of them now has a child. I think all those children were conceived through IVF. Sadly, of the 5-6 blogs I read regularly, two women lost a set of twins each, one woman came close to dying and losing her baby due to a placental abruption, and another woman lost multiple pregnancies. Of the babies who did survive, all spent time in the NICU (some longer than others). All these women now have children at home (and actually only one had a singleton) but those children came at a very high cost - both emotionally and financially. Of course, I haven't asked them, but I'm not sure they would agree that IVF is now "too successful." (Although now that I think about it, I guess that's what the article is saying - that transfer rates are successful and this actually causes complications.) Still, if it were me, I can't imagine going through all the stress, injections, and expense, only to transfer one embryo.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Having been through a miscarriage at 12 weeks, and seen what it did to me, I'd be scared (and was with both E and F) to death of a later loss. So, yeah, I'd prefer to do IVF a second time. But I do wonder if the equation looks different before you've had kids.

[ste-noni.livejournal.com]

that was me

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Having read the article now, I was shocked by the woman who lost her triplet-then-twin pregnancy and still thinks she made the right choice. Mainly - at least they made her seem that way - because she thinks twins are cute?? I think the article did itself a disservice by not being frank about the actual statistical risks. I read this book: http://www.librarything.com/work/2510118/book/16405332 which seems to have sound numbers, and it really made me a believer in single embryo transfer for younger women. I like that idea (in the article) of doing one retrieval and getting a second transfer chance if the first doesn't work.

[ste-noni.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she seemed pretty blithe about it. I wonder how much of that is cognitive dissonance.

I forget who it was but one woman whose blog I was reading was contemplating frozen transfer and it did seem to be much much cheaper (although less successful, I think).

Oh, I meant to tell you - Frisco wore the little green Hannah pants and yellow jacket the other day. They looked so cute on him!