Today I decided to start a new blog. This blog is mostly for myself, to document my story of fertiliy, or, as it turns out, infertility. I thought my days of TTC (Trying To Concieve) were long in my past, but that ugly monster just grew a new head and decided to rear them both in my face. So here it is, the story of how I got here, struggling to have kids. And hopefully, from here, my journey to another child.

It may be helpful to read it in chronological (reverse) order.

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January 4, 2010

Step Two: Badgering the OBGYN

If you don't know this about the medical world yet, let me let you in on a little secret: It's run by MEN. Most of the doctors are men. Most of the clinicians are men. Most of the researchers are men. Most of the people who own the pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies are men. And so bajillions of dollars have been spent making sure that 90 year old men can still have erections while fertility-challenged women of child-bearing ages are left to fend for themselves in producing a child.

At least that's how it shakes down most of the time.

The medical advances that have graced every field under the sun seem to have evaded the field of fertility. Most insurance plans don't cover basic infertility procedures, even diagnostic ones. They don't even cover birth control. They cover viagara, you can bet your sweet life. But comparitively little attention is given to issues of producing more offspring should trouble arise.

This is what I found out when I visited with my OB.

I will tell you something else about the medical world: If you are a man and you want a better erection, you only have to wait 15 minutes for your drug to kick in. If you are a woman wanting to concieve a child, you have to wait a year before a doctor will consider helping you out. I'm not joking. It's standard medical practice to have a woman wait an entire year of trying to get pregnant before doctors will even take steps to diagnose any problems. Considering that it may take several cycles to diagnose the problems, it will likely be closer to a year and a half before the woman can hope to recieve any treatment. If her case is more dire and she has to see a Reproductive Endocrinologist, this woman will have to schedule an appointment a minimum of SIX MONTHS OUT to get in to see him.

And then she'll have to pay exorbitant amounts of money for any diagnostics and treatment because, well, the insurance companies are, say it with me, run by men. And men don't care if women can get pregnant as long as they themselves can get errections.

You should also know that fertility time is more like dog years for women. 1 day for an actively attempting to concieve woman is like a week to most people. A week for an actively attempting to conieve woman is like a month for most people. The 2 weeks between her period and ovulation is like months to an actively trying to concieve woman. And the 2 week wait between ovulation and taking a pregnancy test is an ETERNITY to an actively trying to concieve woman.

So all of this is why, when I met with my OBGYN after six months of TTC, I began to be very glad I am a very assertive, persuasive, persistant and well-read woman.

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