IVF

After the HSG, we went back to Dr. Heckman’s office to discuss our options.  Basically, we had two:  1. Adoption or 2. In Vitro Fertilization. - IVF.

In Vitro Fertilization (in my own words) is where you go to about a million doctor visits, and spend about a million dollars, and take about a million pills and shots, and they prep your hormones, eggs, and uterus to prepare a super-human environment for growing a baby.  At the exact, perfect moment, they put you to sleep and use a long skinny needle to suck the eggs out of the ovaries.  After they get your eggs and your husband’s sperm, they mix it all up in the lab, let it grow for a few days, and then they pick the two (or however many the doctor feels necessary) best, strongest embryos to put in your uterus.  They use a catheter and they gently place these embryos in your uterus, in hopes that they’ll “take” and grow into a baby.  After a couple of weeks, the doctors will do a blood test to see if you’re pregnant or not.  There’s realistically only around a 60-65% chance of having a successful pregnancy the first time.  If it doesn’t work, you can try it again if you have any strength or money left.

Our other option is adoption.  We would LOVE to be blessed to adopt.  But, at this point, my heart’s desire is to shoot for IVF.  Everyone always says “Oh, why don’t you just adopt?”  Most people seem to think adoption is “cheap” and “easy”.  It’s not.  After weighing the pros and cons of adoption vs. IVF, we discovered, private adoption would cost so much more than IVF.  Having never been parents before, we both decided that we don’t possess the specialized skills and training a CPS (Child Protective Services- Children taken away from unfit situations by the state) adoption could possibly need, although they are much cheaper adoptions.  In most cases, CPS babies have had difficult lives and have been through drugs, alcohol, or traumatic situations, and these children will need and deserve someone who can give them the special treatment and help they will need to overcome what they’ve been through.  We don’t feel it would be fair or beneficial for that type of child to end up with us, that in no way possesses these special skills and experience.

So, IVF it is.