Alright. That's IT!

I love Private Practice. Love it. It's probably one of my favorite shows.

But I have HAD IT with inaccurate medical procedures on that show. Specifically the inaccurate infertility treatments they show.

Last year one of the episodes showed 2 of the doctors doing an egg retrieval, sperm retrieval, ICSI, and embryo transfer all in one day. The woman did not have any fertility drugs to stimulate her ovaries, thicken her lining, nothing. Then they pronounced her "pregnant".
Sigh.

Tonight, they are attempting to get a 17 year old girl pregnant. She was awake during the egg retrieval. Her mother was present and her husband joined them part way through the procedure. And now the entire family is watching the ICSI procedure. And according to Naomi, she'll be pregnant in 24 hours.
Bigger sigh.

Let me explain the finer points of IVF. It starts with a month of Birth Control pills and lupron (or some other drug) to stop your body from ovulating so your doctor can control when you ovulate the following month. Then, if blood tests confirm you are sufficiently "suppressed", you take a cocktail of drugs (all injected--none of these are oral drugs) to stimulate your ovaries. After weeks of ultrasounds to confirm you are producing enough eggs, you have an egg retrieval. Under twilight. A very long needle is jammed into your private parts and you cannot be awake during that procedure. You can't have any perfumes, hair spray, lotions, etc on your body that day because the eggs are so fragile. While you are having the egg retrieval, your husband is busy providing his half of the DNA. And you can be darn sure he won't be in the same room with you. Nor would your mother. 17 or not.

Once your eggs have been successfully harvested, they are generally mixed in a petri dish with your partner's contribution to this blessed event. It is NOT common, as TV shows would have you believe, to do an ICSI procedure. ICSI is when the sperm is inserted directly into the egg. It's a procedure that is only done in certain instances. Anyway.

The embryos need to three to five, sometimes six days to mature. To split. To grow. This makes perfect sense. During a "natural" pregnancy, the egg is fertilized in the fallopian tube not the uterus. The environment is different in the two places. You cannot place a recently fertilized egg directly into the uterus, it needs time to mature in an environment that more closely matches the fallopian tube. So no, it's not going to go right into the uterus the second it's fertilized.

And finally, just because and embryo has been transferred, it does NOT mean you are pregnant. You have a 40-60% chance of success on any one round of IVF. I know many, many wonderful women who were not successful during IVF. I was one of them. (yes, i realize I just called myself wonderful. What can I say? I call 'em like I see 'em)

Ok, so I realize I'm nitpicking and it's just a TV show. And the sciecne behind the procedure isn't really the point. But I think it's important that people understand infertility. So many couples struggle with it. It's so very common. And so very misunderstood. And the more bad information that's out there, the worse the perceptions get.

For example, yes, I got pregnant naturally. And every time I tell someone my story, I get the same response. "Oh, isn't it great how once you relaxed, you got pregnant" or "They say all you have to do is relax." or "I know so many women who got pregnant when they gave up!".

Let's clear a few things up.
I did not relax.
I did not give up.
and my baby is a miracle 2 years in the making.

2 years, a miscarriage, a failed IVF, surgery and 2 months of weight loss in the making.
Yeah, I was wicked relaxed.

I just hate that shows like this diminish the hard work that goes into advanced reproductive therapies. It's emotionally exhausting. It's physically exhausting. It's a lot more than a quick trip to the doctor.

And I think people should know that.

And vent over. Thank you for your attention to this matter.