Chris: So, we figured there were probably a lot of blogs written from the female perspective on stimulation. Therefore, we decided to write about this from the male perspective. Here is how the process works. The fertility clinic gives you what seems like 100 billion different medicines that need to each be given in a different way and at a different time for a different number of days starting on a different day. They review this with you, briefly, then send you on your merry way. At first, it is kind of easy. I had to give Candace 1 sub-cutaneous shot at a time and it was in the afternoon. No problem. I got over my fear of injecting Candace in the stomach and having her intestines shoot out at me on our first IVF round. So, piece of cake. Then it started getting tricky. It turned into 3 shots with 1 in the morning and 2 at night. Then, to make it even more complicated, it turned into 2 shots in the morning and 3 at night with some needing to be refrigerated and others needing to be mixed. 5:30 in the morning and I am trying to accurately measure out 50 micro-liters of some medicine I just mixed together. I think at one point, I half fell asleep while mixing the meds. On another morning, I think some of the medication flew into my coffee while I was getting an air bubble out. No worries though. I took a pregnancy test and was not pregnant.
What is the stimulation process? Glad you asked. So, the fertility docs are going to hijack the hormone control of your wife/girlfriend/partner for the next several weeks. Get ready. It is going to be a bumpy ride. First they suppress her ovulation process. Then, they kick it into overdrive but don’t want it to go too far. Imagine balancing on a tight rope that is suspended above a huge canyon (the word Grand comes to mind) filled with alligators during an earthquake. That is how truly tenuous the process can feel. The doctors are masters of this though. Once they have properly “stimulated” her ovaries to produce bookoo follicles, they give you the green light on the “trigger” shot. No, it is not an indicator that you can “trigger” your beer drinking to re-activate to calm down your stress from the 6 million shots you have been nervous to give. Don’t forget, you have to part ways with several million sperm soon. What it does mean though is that you will give her this one shot and then it is two days off from shots. That’s it. It is that simple. Piece of cake.
There is a certain sense of accomplishment though. You sit and look at the table that you have just filled with all of these expensive vials, syringes, and medicine bottles thinking damn, how on Earth are we going to go through all of this and stay on schedule? But, after a few days, you throw out your first box of Gonal-F or burn through the first 5-pack of syringes and realize that well, this fertility ship is underway. There is not turning back. Best to just stick the course and keep stabbing your wife with all of that liquid gold.
Candace: OOOOUUUUCCCCHHHH!!!
thanks for sharing.
This is a smart blog. I mean it. You have so much knowledge about this issue, and so much passion. You know how to make people rally behind it, obviously from the responses. You’ve got a design here that’s not too flashy, but makes a statement as big as what you’re saying. Great job, indeed.