IVF got this

Ok, anyone who’s ever been a part of the IVF world knows the saying “IVF got this.” Catchy isn’t it? I surely didn’t come up with it, but I’ll shamelessly use it because that’s the attitude I have towards it.

So for those of you who aren’t familiar with infertility treatment (IVF specifically) let me give you a quick rundown:

First you see a reproductive endocrinologist who attempts to further diagnose your infertility. You go through many different steps depending on the cause. For us the problem is “male factor” or MF as we IVFers know it. Once it is determined that IVF is the only route to go, you start off on a path that many women claim is the hardest thing they have ever gone through.

It’s emotionally draining, not to mention very expensive. You’re trying to wrap your head around how you’re going to pay for it and how you’ll handle all the injections, all while cursing your body and questioning why it can’t do the single thing it was designed to do that a man can’t. You finally accept it and decide you are going to make this happen because you are a strong woman and nothing is going to hold you back. So you pick a month when you would like to start the process and you go from there.

This brings us to where we are currently. The month finally comes and you call your doctor’s office and they set up a schedule for you. You start birth control pills (ironic I know and seems to contradict the reason behind why we are at this process, but it’s for a good reason), go in for a consult, learn how to do your 8 trillion shots, and then you’re set.

So I’ll go in for my consult in a couple of weeks and start my shots January 12. How am I excited about this? I can give someone else shots all day long, but almost pass out just thinking about pricking my own finger to check my blood sugar.

So that’s where we are. Did I also mention IVF is expensive? Like a year of mortgage payments expensive. Thank goodness for overtime shifts- though we know what overtime shifts are like for nurses….

Get ready for my hormonal posts.

*in case you were curious, all of these pictures were borrowed from the internet and are not my own