The fertility journey is a winding road of hope. You may have a wishlist featuring maternity clothes, ideas about the nursery, or dreams of how you’ll spend your time with your child. Perhaps that’s why the quest to achieve pregnancy can be so anxiety-inducing. It strikes at the very heart of who we are as human beings and calls into question our deepest wishes and hopes for the future.
Between 2000 and 2010, egg donation nearly doubled, resulting in thousands of pregnancies each year. As more families delay having children while building their careers and establishing financial stability, egg donation and the use of donor eggs will likely become even more popular. For most women, the difficult reality is that while it takes longer and longer to become financially stable, fertility has a ticking clock attached to it. As a woman gets older her ovarian reserve diminishes and the older she gets, the eggs she has are often lower quality. Eventually, this can make it difficult and then eventually impossible to get pregnant.
Infertility can be painful and deeply frustrating. You may find yourself wondering why this is happening to you. And while infertility treatment can be highly effective, it presents some additional challenges: some, but not all, people who undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) experience weight gain. This can be frustrating, but significant weight gain is unlikely. So let’s separate IVF weight gain fact from fiction. Here’s what you need to know.
Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is an affordable and less invasive alternative to in vitro fertilization (IVF). For women who are good candidates, success rates are slightly lower than those associated with IVF, but still quite high. In the days following an IUI procedure, you may be overwhelmed by feelings of anxiety and eager anticipation as you await your pregnancy test (sometimes called a beta). Here’s what to expect in the days and weeks following an IUI procedure.
Infertility is deeply frustrating, striking at the very core of who you are, what makes you human, and how you feel about your body. Many couples spend years taking pregnancy tests at the very first sign of a pregnancy or missed period. Some begin testing as soon as the woman ovulates. So the faint pink or blue line on a pregnancy test can spark jubilation, especially if you’ve previously seen dozens of negative tests. Yet false positives do happen. Medications can cause a false positive pregnancy test, turning your hope and jubilation into despondence and disappointment.
Taking a home pregnancy test can trigger many emotions -- excitement, anxiety, and if you’ve been unfortunate in receiving a negative test result after a negative test result, frustration and anger. False negative pregnancy tests are much more common than false positives. While a urinary tract infection (UTI) is unlikely to cause a false negative it could do so, at least in theory. If you have a UTI, see a doctor and then retake the test a few days later.
A false positive pregnancy test is very rare, but false negatives are extraordinarily common. That's comforting news to people struggling with infertility, especially those dealing with the chronic frustration of month after month of negative tests. Of course, averages and data about pregnancy tests don’t tell you much about your individual case, or what you can expect as you navigate the choppy waters of infertility. So what do you need to know about false positive and false pregnancy tests? Here’s an overview.
About 10% of women and 1 in 8 couples have trouble getting or staying pregnant. If you struggle with infertility, you may feel overwhelmed, alternating between feelings of despondency and hope, frustration and excitement, all centered around the potential to become a parent. Infertility is a whirlwind of emotions, and it can often involve a wide range of medical procedures and tests.
Infertility can be extremely stressful. It cuts to the core of one of the most basic human instincts -- the desire to have children. No wonder people struggling with infertility report higher rates of depression, anxiety, and stress. One study even found that couples struggling with infertility are three times more likely to divorce than other couples. People experiencing stress while trying to get pregnant may worry about the effects of stress on fertility. For most people, stress will not affect fertility. Here’s what you need to know.
After a year of trying to conceive, 12-15% of couples are still unable to get pregnant. That’s a scary figure for anyone who hopes to become a parent soon. Even scarier is the fact that there are rarely symptoms if any at all when it comes to infertility. So you might not know if you’re among the unlucky few until you’ve spent months staring at negative pregnancy tests. What if you could reduce the uncertainty and shorten the timeline to pregnancy? Fertility testing before you begin trying to get pregnant can do exactly that. So is it a good idea? Here’s what you need to know.
