Friday, January 30, 2009

My 2cents on the Octuplets

Let me start by saying that of course I don't begrudge anyone the right to have as many children as they desire.  If your goal in life is to mother and be a mother then go for it.  
But the story of this woman who gave birth to 8 babies astounds me.  And it annoys me because it is making ART look bad.  When this woman's mother goes on television stating that her daughter underwent fertility treatments everyone just assumes that it means she had IVF.  Ummmm I don't think so.  IVF costs thousands of dollars.  This woman has no insurance and with 6 other children at home I doubt she could scrounge up the money  to do IVF.  But lets say she somehow got the money.  Took out a loan or something.  There is no doctor in the USA who is going to  put in 8 embryos.  And I doubt that they would have put in four and they all split.  It just doesn't happen.  My doctor didn't even want to put in 3.  And she counseled me repeatedly about selective reduction.  I knew that I would not reduce, not in a million years.  So I agreed that we would only put in 2 embryos. 

So no I don't think she had IVF.  She could have had an IUI.  Maybe she took clomid, maybe she got her hands on an injectible.  But I think any doctor worth their salt would have cancelled her cycle if they saw the 8 follicles.  Or they would have tried to convert her to IVF, but you read my thoughts on that already.

With all that I don't think she had the help of a fertility doctor.  I think she got her hands on clomid or follistim and took it on her own.  She maybe could buy some illegally on the internet, or in Mexico or something.  And then I think she went and had a lot of sex.  She probably just wants her own reality tv show like the duggars or john and kate plus 8.  But I don't know this.  Maybe she just wanted a 7th child desperately.  

It doesn't really matter how she did it.  Or why. I'm just pissed at the bad publicity that ART is getting from this.  It just gives the jerks out there more ammunition to disregard the pain and heartache of infertility and worry about people like this woman and her 14 kids.  


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o.k. on to nicer topics.  Marcu over at Womb for Rent gave me a blog award.  The coveted I 3> your blog award in fact.  And I thank her some much for the acknowledgement.  I feel extra special because I've received this award previously.  And actually already followed the award rules of choosing other blogs to give the award to etc.  So I don't want to do that all over again.  But I do however want to recommend you guys go over and visit Womb for Rent.  It is one of my favorites and I'm sure you'll enjoy it too.

10 comments:

momofonefornow said...

I thought exactly the same thing. I can't imagine I doc putting in more than embies. This article has a quote from her mother saying that her daughter had the embryos implanted.

http://www.rr.com/home/home/article/9000/6678236/Family_Octuplets_mother_has_6_other_children?intcmp=homepage_hero


I can't believe it. I am trying hard not to be judgmental but what is a woman, living at home with mom & dad and with kids already doing having any kind of fertility treatments? They said she was young, implying there was still time to have kids later on, seems wholly irresponsible to me.

Gah!! This whole story just really steams me up. I sure hope her mom and dad are rich, otherwise who will pay for those babies? Probably not the doc that did the treatments. Although, he/she ought to be held responsible. Aghhh, this whole thing just gives ART a bad name and it really, really corks me!

Bella said...

I know, that chick makes it look like ART/IVF is so easy & that the docs will do whatever we want because they're just in it for the money. It's all such BS and makes it sooo much harder for us IFers because people think of crap like this when we mention IVF. Ugh!!!

Michelle said...

I couldnt agree more. This story really gets me fired up!

Kristin said...

That story has gotten me so pi**ed! i was listening to her doctor's this morning on the today show - they were answering questions from the media - and from the sounds of it, she DID have IVF. my husband and i were baffled. what doctor in his/her right mind would allow a woman to do an 8-embryo IVF?? Doesn't make sense to us.

And it breaks my heart to think of all the ignorant people out there who don't have a clue about ART is or the women/couples who truly need it. They're going to hear IVF and think of this woman who has gained such notoriety in the past couple days. She should be ashamed of herself and so should her doctors.

Now i just hope those babies are OK.

Mo said...

i'm not even as generous as you. hard to believe that if she had 6 at home she'd need ANY more fertility treatment of any kind. i know i'm biased becasue i have yet to even have one, but geez, c'mon!

mo

Anonymous said...

Thank you for writing this!

Incidents like this give ART and IF a bad name. It is incidents like this that makes those of us who are fighting for IF coverage on our insurance running uphill with potholes hoping not to slip and spraining our ankles.

So thank you to Dr. whoever you are (as your name seems not to ever appear) for making those of us who want to make insurance companies cover IF mandatory practice.

Michelle said...

I could not agree more!

April said...

i know. just another story to confuse the public with IF/IUI/IVF/ART stuff.... for the love of all.

Anonymous said...

First off, thanks for nice words about my blog.

Secondly, I couldn't agree with you more about the octuplets. It gets me so fired up! It really does give ART a bad rap and perpetuates the negative information most of our country seems to have about IVF. The whole thing really makes me sick! I hope the TRUE story comes out in the end!

Laura said...

I DO NOT understand what that doctor was thinking -- if IVF is really, truly what she did. I won't believe it until we see an actual interview from the woman herself and her doctor. And even then, I'm not sure how much I'll believe.

De-lurking-- hi!