More ramblings, hopefully better edited than yesterday

Why has IVF captured the media/public attention so very much? Yesterday night I had a long conversation with a friend in which he asked why we aren't doing IVF. When I explained that what we are doing is much less painful, dangerous and expensive and than IVF he asked again about success rates. As far as I can tell (and thanks in great deal to Drs. Google) our current plan has a success rate of about 18-20% per cycle (and for us IUI would only increase that a few percentage points at most) and IVF has a success rate of 30-35% for my age group, although that clearly doesn't take into consideration the fact that I may not produce enough eggs for FET ever. So why is the media so obsessed? And why, if you consult Drs. Google sloppily, do you get success rates closer to 50%? This is about the 4th or 5th conversation I've had with friends where they've asked what the hang-up is with IVF. Well, there isn't a significant hang-up for us: we'll be able to finance it in the next year or two, my religious beliefs support the process, and we're viable candidates, but still ... it seems puzzling and a bit annoying that this is the only treatment people are familiar with.

And in part I wonder if IF patients aren't talking about all the other things they tried because IVF is so overwhelming when you get there. I happen to know 2 women who used other IF treatments to get pregnant, but only most incidentally (one of whom was an IUI patient who I just happened to have dinner with 2 days post IUI and she jokingly mentioned that she couldn't drink because she might be conceiving during the dinner ... and sure enough 9 months later she had a beautiful baby).

For all that my ramblings might convince you that we are set on IVF if necessary, I do still have reservations. Primarily of the sort relating to cancer. My bestest friend in the world had ovar.ian can.cer and I'm at high risk from my family history. And that cancer has a mortality rate above 90%. So I am worried about it, but I still think it's standard enough at this point to take the risk, if we have to. And part of me likes the idea of throwing everything into one treatment that's involved and completely scheduled and giving it our all and then moving on. But we're not there yet. And I do wish that my friends had some clue about what is involved in our current treatments.