IVF can be a long and lonely journey and while I find writing this blog very therapeutic, there are times when it is hard to write about what I am going through. Sometimes I find reading other peoples blogs inspiring and reading their journey navigating their way through infertility means that I can take some comfort in the fact that I am not alone in this journey.
Interestingly I have steered away from forums. The main reason being is that some of the information I have read is just plain incorrect. However, I recently joined a paid membership forum where only other people experiencing IVF are permitted to join. How enlightening! Joining this forum puts a very different slant on things.
Some of the stories the women share are amazing. I’ve also learnt more about alternative treatments from these forums than from Googling the term “IVF.” And here I was beginning to trust Dr Google that he contained all the answers – well at least not on the first few pages where I looked.
Anyway, I digress. One of the great things about this particular forum that I have joined is the fact that I have been able to have access to the opinions of many women who are actually going through the process of IVF – not those who heard this or that from a friend who has done it. It has also been interesting learning about different treatment protocols and also whether it is worth changing either clinics or fertility specialists.
From this and also from some of the comments from readers of this blog, I have decided to get another opinion and see a new fertility specialist. I have two doctors in mind – one at another clinic that my Chinese Herbalist / Acupuncturist has been begging me to see . The other at the same clinic that I currently frequent but who tries new alternative treatments and that a woman on the forum recommended I see.
To test my theory out, I thought I would ask my nurse when she phoned in with my negative blood test result today a question. This question was so specific and could even be considered leading. I framed it in the manner that stated I was considering changing Doctors. I told here that as I had now have had eleven IVF cycles and each of them have been a failure, I was considering changing my doctor to see if there was another treatment protocol worth pursuing.
I asked my nurse a leading question – my question was “What doctor would you see if you were in a similar position to me?” She then told me about two doctors at the clinic that were more willing to try a few more alternative techniques. Bingo – one of them was one who had been referred to from the lady in the forum! Yeah – so whilst I may or may not get pregnant with a new fertility specialist it will at least put my mind at rest that I have tried something different.