IVF Over 40 Isn't Always The Answer
I was thinking the other day about everything I went through to finally have my daughter. You'd think I'd be over it by now, but it still makes me a little sick to think about what a horrific experience it was to have my life run by a fertility clinic for a couple of years - especially since my best success was following an all natural protocol.I recall once, sitting in the waiting room at the fertility clinic and a very insensitive receptionist was talking on the phone. Apparently she thought she'd forgot to schedule a patient so she called her. From what I could hear, this "patient" must have told the receptionist that she didn't need an appointment because she miscarried. The receptionist got off the phone, and within earshot of everyone in the waiting room, mutters to herself, "Well, I'm sorry you had a miscarriage, but you saved my butt!"
I couldn't believe my ears!
Along the same lines, after my second IVF attempt resulted in what we thought might be an ectopic, I went in for a shot of Methotrexate (which is a drug they give to stop the pregnancy from growing so it expels naturally without rupturing your fallopian tube). I knew most of the nurses well by this time, but it seems like when you become one of their "failures", nobody wants to talk with you. Here I was, devastated, and they avoided eye contact with me and acted like I was invisible. The shot was given to me by a rookie nurse who didn't really seem to know what she was doing. After the shot, I was sent on my way with barely a "good bye". Since that time, I've seriously thought about starting some kind of compassion training course for fertility professionals.
I'm really not one that needs a lot of hand holding, but a little kindness certainly would have been in order. I guess that wasn't included in the thousands of dollars we paid for that failed cycle. Actually, I should have thanked them--my best treatment was NO treatment - and they certainly pushed me in the right direction.