Podcast: Taming the Twin Trend from Infertility

This podcast is a couple years old (March 30, 2011), but I came across it on the RESOLVE website and decided to check it out.

I agree that people are seeing twins more and more, not even just in the popular media with celebrities, but with everyday people all around them.  Of course people struggling with infertility would feel comfortable hedging their bets with the risk of twins, rather than just transferring one embryo, which would be safer for the fetus(es) and eventual babies/children. It's funny that I say "hedgin their bets," because this whole world of infertility and ART treatments really is a gamble, and many couples get burned in the game, losing money, time, sanity, and the only sure-thing in all this is stress and heartache.  For the lucky ones, the risk is worth it and they graduate out of infertility into parenthood, one way or another.

The part that scares me is that whenever people try to warn me about how difficult multiples will be, I always just think about the cost of having two the same age at the same time, and the stress and time management of it all.  I always brush it off and declare that if anyone can handle multiples, its me!  I am the oldest of 4 kids and grew up living in an in-home daycare.  "I got this," I think to myself when imagining myself surrounded by my adorable like-dressed twins or even triplets.  I've never considered the health risks, medical costs, and heartbreak that could be associated with it.  This podcast kind of opened my eyes and makes me think twice about it.  And I think that's a good thing.  As we get closer to IVF ourselves, I think going in knowing how we feel about every possible outcome is the most important thing.

At this point, if B & I do IVF in 2014, would I choose to do a single or a double/triple embryo transfer?  Unless my health insurance covered it, or if they offered the "two-fer" deal as mentioned in the podcast, I'd probably still elect to transfer as many as my RE will allow, just to increase my odds of a successful live birth.  I'd rather have multiple children who need extra care & attention for a while, then no children ever.  It is so maddening that money and state-mandates on health insurance coverage can play such an important, and honestly, such a deciding factor in all this.  I truly envy those who are able to naturally and easily conceive.  They may think they do, but most of them have no idea what a gift life truly is, and I mean that in the most fundamental meaning of the word.

Have you seen Texas Multi Mamas yet?

Monday night, after my marathon of watching Teen Mom 2, I finally turned the channel and found this new show on WE channel.  It's called Texas Multi Mamas (I think it was only a coincidence that I happened to be in Texas when I found the show!).


I watched it as I fell asleep, so I didn't pay attention to much of it, but I couldn't help but wonder if these were all former infertiles, who'd undergone ART treatments, and were now living "life after infertility."


Well, duh, of course they are!  Natural twins, sure, but probably not triplets and certainly not quadruplets.


I Googled the show and found an article talking about the show in general: http://www.scntx.com/articles/2011/12/27/news_update/8860.txt.  Seems really interesting, actually.  Kind of like a window into what the future could potentially look like if we end up doing IVF some day.  


B and I were going to transfer two embies.  If it were up to us, we were willing to transfer up to three, but our RE said that only increases our chances of multiples, not of a pregnancy.  So we agreed to transfer two.  I'm sure being a MOM (Mom of Multiples) isn't easy, but I'd relish the opportunity to meet that challenge if it meant I got to be a mom.  Besides, I'm the oldest of four children and grew up with my own mom doing daycare in our home.  I've even spent a summer doing daycare for her by myself while she was ill and bedridden.  So yes, I think if anyone can be a great MOM, it's me.  But at the rate we're going, we feel that we'll be lucky now if we ever even get to have one child.


After a little more internet searching, I did come across one article that talks about one of the women's struggle with infertility: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/mixmaster/2011/12/texas_multi-mama_teryn_todd_on.php.  This was  really interesting to me too, since she has been where I am right now.  Her successes gave me hope, but also warned me that it might be wisest for us to wait to do IVF until we can afford multiple cycles, since it doesn't work the first time for many couples.  


Most clinics have some kind of "deal" where you pay more ($26,000 at our clinic), but get 3 fresh and 3 frozen cylces, and if you don't get a live birth, you get most or all of your money back.  The risk of course is if you get pregnant right away the first time, there is no refund for all the extra money you spent.  Seems like it might be a better deal then I originally thought though now.