If you’ve read any of my previous blog posts, you might remember that our last round of IVF gave us one little embryo good enough to freeze. A little bundle of cells that embodied so much hope and emotion, preserved cryogenically until we felt ready to try again. That precious embryo - lovingly dubbed “Frosty”... Continue Reading →
Dear Clearblue, I've been purchasing your products for years. I've used your ovulation kits to track my cycle, relied on your pregnancy tests for a clear result after fertility treatment and stared down at the words "not pregnant" more times than I care to admit. And I feel the need to tell you this: Those... Continue Reading →
Inexplicably, I somehow didn't update my blog with any of our IVF round 2 shenanigans. Very strange given that I so readily broadcast the most mundane updates of my reproductive system all over Instagram at every possible opportunity.... But for anyone who hasn't already been inundated with the aforementioned, a quick recap of how it... Continue Reading →
All over the internet, the same questions crop up time and time again under posts about IVF and fertility treatment. Below, I attempt to answer some of the clangers that those of us going through fertility treatment get asked on a regular basis... (Note: these are my own answers and are therefore based on my... Continue Reading →
One of the (many) things that made me nervous about IVF was the prospect of going under general anaesthetic. I’d never had any form of sedation before and, even in my most inebriated heyday, I’d never blacked out - I always remembered the drunken antics from the night before. Often with more clarity than I... Continue Reading →
It's over. And we weren't ready for it to be. We didn't get to experience the sense of completion that follows an embryo transfer or the closure that comes with a negative test result. We simply didn't get that far in the process. Our only 2 embryos stopped growing after just 3 precious days and... Continue Reading →
Anyone who has so much as dipped their little toe in the ocean of infertility will have been told, at one point or another (but most likely several hundred times), that they need to “just relax”. Given that the reason for mine and Simon’s infertility is a lack of motile sperm (which is quite obviously... Continue Reading →
Our first IVF cycle begins in January and despite the fact that it’s taken 812 days and 29 sad, unfertilized eggs to get to this point, I’m still in a state of total disbelief that we’re here. But we are here and this is happening. [For any fans of The Office (US version) – that... Continue Reading →
“When are you going to have a baby?” Shortly after getting married, I started being asked this at an alarming frequency – not by my friends and family but, almost exclusively, by people who weren’t particularly close to me (distant relatives, nosey neighbours, Barbara from accounts etc.) It’s an incredibly invasive, potentially triggering and not... Continue Reading →
At the beginning of 2018, with over a year’s worth of very decidedly unsafe sex under my belt and shortly after learning that my husband and I were working with “sub-optimal” (read: lazy) sperm, I started writing a journal…of sorts. At this point, nobody knew of our desire - let alone our struggle - to... Continue Reading →