My soapbox for the day

There is a lot of brew ha ha going on about the number of embryos doctors should transfer during IVF. Having been faced with this decision, I thought I would throw my 2 cents in.

I had a nightmare getting pregnant. Long story I will get into another time- but it was hell. On IVF try #3- I remember telling my doctor to put all 7 embryos back in- I didn't care if I ended up with the Brady Bunch. I just wanted a child(ren). We decided on 3, due to my previous failures. Was I aware of the increased chance of twins (20%) and triplets (only 5%!) - absolutely. My embryos during previous attempts looked like scrambled eggs, even though my RE during those times said they were "textbook perfect" Maybe comic book perfect, but definitely not textbook.

I remember looking on the internet for ways of financing attempt #4 when the call came.

I was pregnant. Very low positive, but positive nonetheless. My RE thought it was a singleton. Another long story for another time.

Fast forward.......

I now am the proud mother of 29.5 weeker triplets. Would I change anything- No. If I could go back and only transfer 2 embryos , would I- No. I knew what I faced, my mother has been in Peds for 20+ years. I was not jaded, nor uneducated about the risk factors. Nor did I ever consider selective reduction. I remember telling my mom that I would rather have 1 hour with them then to have to reduce, just because"there was too many". After the tumultuous pregnancy that I was having before I found out I was pregnant with triplets, I knew there was a reason for all of it.

I was fortunate that I had a wealth of knowledge surrounding me from my RE, my Perinatalogist and every other specialist in the book that I saw. True, high order pregnancies are difficult, but I think that rather than guilt REs into only putting back 1 or 2 embryos, perhaps more time should be spent getting more information into the hands of prospective parents so that they can be the ones with the final say.