My ex-boss, who has two wonderful children through Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), sent me an email the other day with these two simple words of encouragement after hearing of my plans to do In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Simple to say. Hard to do (at least for me).
By the way, there's a whole language of acronyms out there in the ART community. Here's a good link to go to in case you need to refer to the commonly used terms.
The thing is after two failed ART attempts: 1) a failed fresh cycle IVF in 2010, and 2) a failed frozen embryo transfer (FET) in 2012, I wasn't sure if I still had it in me to keep going for another round of ART. (To read about fresh and frozen embryo transfers go to this link).
The ART process is not only taxing for the woman physically, e.g. daily hormone shots for two weeks, egg retrieval and embryo transfer (minor surgery but still invasive procedures), it is also mentally exhausting for the couple experiencing it. It is an endless piling of hope. Hope that enough eggs will mature on egg retrieval day. Hope that the eggs are good enough to fertilize and will produce good embryos. Hope that the embryos will attach and grow in the womb. Hope, hope, hope.
To top it all off is the popular term that is the dreaded Two Week Wait (TWW) all couples have to go through after the embryo transfer (ET), which refers to the length of time needed before a pregnancy test can be done via bloodtest. More about TWW can be read here. It can be a pretty nerve-wracking time for any couple trying to conceive. So, you can imagine how I feel after two failed ART attempts.
Last week as I was trying to make up my mind about trying yet again, I found myself browsing for inspirational quotes on how to overcome one's fear of failure. I stumbled upon this gem:
"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed." - Theodore Roosevelt
So, as my darling husband (DH) and I embark on another IVF journey together in a few weeks, I will try my best to THINK POSITIVE (nothing like shouty capitals to reinforce my point to myself) whatever the outcome may be.
Whoosah.
