THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE INFERTILE

February 17, 2012 by 2 Comments

 

 

The time traveler’s wife faced catastrophic infertility issues in Audrey Niffenegger’s book The Time Traveler’s Wife. Every time she became pregnant, her baby inherited its father’s time traveling abilities and time traveled out of the womb. This resulted in multiple miscarriages. Finally, in order to end the angst of never ending losses, the time traveling husband had a vasectomy. Then a still potent version of himself time traveled to the future and impregnated his wife with a miracle baby that came to term. I did not have to overcome my infant hurling out of my womb to become lost in time. However, I did have to face five failed IVF attempts with my elderly eggs. I had no doppelganger younger edition of myself to come to my rescue and supply my husband with fertile eggs. But I did find a youthful egg donor who would be my knight in shining armor come to deliver eggs to the infertile damsel in distress.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , ,

DONOR EGG MONSTER BABY

February 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

What if I delivered a donor egg monster baby? I had to journey toward acceptance of using a donor egg.  I rented a DVD called Blessed.  It featured an infertile couple who went to have an IVF cycle at a sterile, sinister looking facility.  Unbeknownst to them, the doctor switched the husband’s sperm for the seed of Satan himself.  The woman gave birth to two beautiful, angelic-appearing daughters who later made the face rot off of a bratty boy.  I too could have the next Rosemary’s baby. Once I became involved in choosing my egg donor, it alleviated my anxiety.  I felt that she would represent my side of the family, and I no longer felt that using a donor egg would be alien to me.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , ,

MIRACLE BABY AT AGE 44

February 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

When I remarried at age 44, I was determined to have my IVF baby with my own eggs.  I kept searching for an older mother who beat the odds and delivered an infant.  At last I found my shining light example in the waiting room, a vivacious woman finally pregnant with her much desired baby at age 44.  However, on the way out from her doctor’s appointment, she pulled me aside and confessed that she really had used a donor egg.  Now at last the New York Times has supplied my super mom who gave birth at age  44 with a 1 in 1,000 chance.  She had a little help by going to the fertility temple in Bhutan and getting hit on the head with a piece of wood by the monk.  I too would be happy to be blessed by the Bhutan monk. I’d gladly endure being clobbered with a wooden spoon, prodded with a fork or cut with a butter knife if it brought me my baby.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , ,

DEAD SEA SCROLLS FEATURE FERTILITY

January 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

 

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at Times Square was hallowed by fertility gods.  There was the winged dove statue that is the fertility goddess Asherah.  The sacred pomegranate prompted pregnancy, and clay pomegranate vessels were prominently displayed.  To insure a baby, a woman from the 8th century B.C.E. must have commissioned the exquisite,  thumbnail size ivory statue that doubled its powers by featuring a winged dove and the pomegranate.  I wanted to break the glass case and seize the carved ivory figure for a fertility ritual.  Instead I had to settle for staring at the relic and hoping that its fertility powers were taking effect.  Since I also had viewed the Pompeii fertility god at the Times Square Pompeii exhibit in September, I might be destined for a baby that would be brought to me courtesy of the ancient Romans and Hebrews.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , , , ,

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT: BEWARE

January 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

 

The movie The Kids Are All Right brought sperm donation into the mainstream.  A lesbian couple, played by Annette Bening and Juliette Moore, conceived their two children through a sperm donor, played by Mark Ruffalo.  Annette Bening was even nominated for an academy award for best actress and Mark Ruffalo for best supporting actor.  When the previously anonymous sperm donor dad arrived to meet the kids, Juliette Moore’s character favored the rendezvous and began an affair with the sperm donor. Annette Bening’s character was against the meeting from the start, and I identified with her.  I did not want my future baby to meet its egg donor.  I was not afraid that my husband would embark on a steamy affair with the donor.  I also did not think that the donor would turn out to be a sociopath boiling a rabbit in a pot as in the movie Fatal Attraction.  But I did want my baby all to myself and did not want to compete with its biological egg donor mother.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , , , ,

RACKING UP DONOR EGG SIBLINGS

January 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

 

My egg donor produced one baby, and her second donation resulted in another pregnancy.  My baby already would have two biological half siblings.  I could have played Sherlock Holmes and discovered the identity of these children.  Already there is a website for the 150 and still counting prodigy of a prolific sperm donor.  A mother of one of the children keeps track of the growing family tree so that in the future her son could meet some of his brothers and sisters.  I did not want built-in relatives that were complete strangers. I also did not want to jeopardize my position as the mother of my child by establishing relationships that were based on the biological egg donor mother.  But I would have been open to an incest website to prevent the growing possibility of an egg donor child of mine inadvertently marrying a half sibling. Of course, since many egg donor recipients never reveal their egg donor origin to their child, I still could have a grandchild born of incest.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , , ,

INFERTILITY: MOTHER KNOWS BEST

January 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

“Infertility treatments will kill you!” my mother exclaimed.  She was not taking the proud to be a grandmother stance that I had hoped.  Instead she was focusing on cancer.  My mother was convinced that the IVF hormones would be a breeding ground for tumors. “Victoria, your grandmother died of melanoma now you’ll be dead too!”  I disregarded my mother’s dire prophecies and proceeded with five IVF treatments with my own eggs. When those failed, I decided to try IVF again with donor eggs. My beautiful baby that beckoned at the end was worth fighting for. However, I knew that my mother was just being melodramatic when she claimed that I’d be dying for a baby as well.  Except that my mother was proven right.  A recent New York Times article found that IVF increases the risk of ovarian cancer fourfold.  Now I’d have to beat the odds to get pregnant and to not get a malignancy.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , ,

FERTILITY ROAD LINKS CONTINENTS

December 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment


All roads lead to infertility.  The magazine Fertility Road of the UK features fertility articles that are read across Europe as well as in the United States.  Each cover depicts a celebrity, and one edition shows Sarah Jessica Parker with the caption “Surrogacy and the City.”  Infertility treatment is the new doctors without borders, and the desire for a baby is universal.  I almost fell off my computer chair when I saw my book Grade A Baby Eggs: An Infertility Memoir reviewed by the magazine. Now the British can enjoy my book too.  In fact the English woman that I befriended in the waiting room of my infertility hospital might be reading the book right now.  She flew to New York to receive an egg donation from her sister who arrived from Australia.  However, she might not be able to recognize herself and our waiting room conversations since I changed everyone’s names for privacy reasons.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , , ,

FERTILITY RELIC SURVIVES POMPEII

December 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment

 

A fertility statue emerged intact from the ashes of Mt Vesuvius’ eruption almost two thousand years ago.  It sat behind glass at the Times Square Pompeii exhibit.  The relic featured a disembodied hand holding the fertility god, Sabazius, whose own outstretched hands were blessing the nursing mother and infant reclining beneath him.  For added potency, the bronze sculpture also included a snake, pine cone and bird.  In the first century A.D. Roman women must have knelt beneath the statue and prayed for a baby.  They did not have IVF, but they had their own magical method.  The rebirth of this relic in modern-day New York was proof positive of its fecundity.  I wanted to return with a baby blanket as an offering.  Then I too could ignite the spark of life in my womb.  Unfortunately, it was the last day of the exhibit, and I did not have the opportunity to appeal to the god of procreation for his blessing.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , ,

Pregnant by 50 or Bust

December 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

 

50 was my pregnancy cut-off. Afterwards I would be going against nature and my own body. Hospitals had IVF and donor egg recipient age restrictions for additional reasons. My doctor told me that they wanted the mothers to stay alive long enough to raise their children. The egg donor counselor warned me that I would be called “Grandma” when I appeared in public with my baby. My husband and I were prepared to take our child with us to the retirement home. Of course I didn’t want to look as old as the pregnant woman on the cover of New York Magazine. Apparently women in their 50’s are lining up in droves for their egg donor babies. Even though 60 is the new 40, I couldn’t risk having two of us on wheels-me in the wheelchair and my donor egg child in the stroller.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »