Friday, June 24, 2005

The stress of being an IVF specialist

Being infertile can be stressful – and so can being an infertility specialist ! The infertile patients who get pregnant move on to their obstetrician and then their pediatrician – but the ones who don’t get pregnant come back again with loads of questions !

Patients need a shoulder to cry on, and I am happy to provide this, but often there are so many questions , and very few answers.

Why did the cycle fail ?
What do I do next ?
How many embryos should I transfer ?
Should I do another cycle or should I adopt ?

Unfortunately, we can only explain about one-third of things ; one-third is educated guessing; and about one third we have no idea and can't explain why it happened.
It's not much fun not having the answers, but this can be a humbling experience !
This is why it's much easier dealing with educated patients, who have realistic expectations of what we can do - and what we can't !

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