I’ve had several people say to me that I should consider an IUI (intrauterine insemination – like artificial insemination) so that we don’t waste this cycle. I have even thought about just baby dancing and see what happens. But, after reading this I have changed my mind.
I am by no means judging this lady. She did something at the time that I’m sure many desperate women may have also done in her situation. However, the repercussions from it are just too great to ignore.
I had six follies growing at my last ultrasound appointment. Granted they were tiny and my estrogen levels weren’t increasing, thus the cancelled IVF stimulant cycle. However, if on some odd chance they continued to grow on their own, even if it were two or three, I would not want to take the chance of having all of them fertilize and implant, then have to make a very tough decision as to whether to keep them all or selectively reduce.
I have always believed that it should be a women’s right to decide on abortion, but also believe that a woman should not abuse this right. I think that if a woman’s pregnancy puts her in physical harm, or puts the baby in physical harm, or if the woman was molested or raped, than she should be able to choose to have an abortion. But I do not think that a woman should just use it as a type of birth control. There are other better methods for this.
When a woman goes through in vitro fertilization, she and her partner must decide how many embryos to transfer. This is a very important decision and comes with many possibilities. Due to a woman’s age and her reason for going through IVF in the first place, she may decide to have three or four embryos transferred. The idea is that one will stick and grow to maturity and thus deliver a healthy baby. However, it has happened that all of the embryos stick, and even in some cases one or more have split into identical twins, thus having five or more babies created from the four embryos. A person has to make a very tough decision as to whether she will selectively reduce or not.
You basically have to decide whether the living creatures within your womb will continue their life, or if you will stop them from growing. Normally, selective reduction is done to improve the odds of delivering healthy twins. (My RE said that if we had to reduce, the specialist he would send us to does not reduce to less than twins.) For those of us going through IVF, we have worked hard to get here and to have to make a decision such as this is agonizing, because we want children, and to have to purposefully choose to terminate one or more of the embryos is emotionally devastating.
I don’t want to go through this. Hubby and I put our trust in God to not give us more than we can handle. However, I won’t put myself in a situation such as an IUI with multiple follicles or having sex in the same situation with a great chance of all of them taking. It’s just not what I would want to do.
I feel for the lady in the link that I posted. I would like to say I would not have done what she did, but I’m not in her shoes. I’ve not been TTC as long as she and her husband have. I don’t know that desperation yet. I will keep her in my prayers. And I hope that I can learn a lesson from her situation.
