How to Make a Family: The Blog

Conception Collaborators' Ears Should Ring With Voices of the Donor Egg Market

2009-11-07T14:49:38-06:00

The DoubleX crowd is chewing up the question of whether or not donating your eggs is "smart" versus the stance that doing so equates to a woman selling her body. I enjoyed reading the sentiments, but I think the proposed question is worded... awkwardly? Granted, it's not much of a stretch to say that my DNA-carrying eggs are products of my body. It's reaching for a breaking point, though, when we label a woman's egg cells as "her body". My whine might seem a tad moot, or at least uninteresting, but I think the repro med pros have to maintain a bit more than a passing curiosity about the perspectives of the women who are donating their eggs, some of whom are quoted in this XXfactor piece. The Buddhist in me particularly likes the women's viewpoints on the related question of fertility hysteria and infertility treatment. My favorite comment is...

Meanwhile... Coming Soon: Dining & Drinks in Atlanta! It's ASRM Time!

2009-10-13T11:44:42-05:00

Did I really go all the way through September and half of October sans fresh blogpost?! :::the Blog Goddesses shudder::: Yes, and I'd gladly do it again for the same reasons, those being wrapped up in a (for once) pleasingly busy life away from the Blogosphere. Besides, we're all about to be inundated with the Latest, Greatest, Bestest, Most Advanced, Most Alarming, Most Contrived Reproductive Medicine News that hits the America's every year around this time... Live from Atlanta, it's the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine! (Check out their count-down to the Big Event... ) So, although I feel a twinge of competitive guilt about my recent blog-silence, my sense of irresponsibility is mildly assuaged just by knowing that the ether will soon be filled with the happiest sounds of baby-making marketing. Again. (And -- just to clarify -- I will never, ever be posting...

Eggs In the Middle of a Marriage

2009-08-31T10:41:11-05:00

The people pulled into the baby-making whirlpool aren't always the sad-but-loving couples we like to imagine. Sometimes, not everyone is on board with the big decisions inherent in fertility treatment. Sometimes, like in the case of Jackie Barr in Glasgow, individuals are simply along for the ride, against their will. In this article from the Daily Record, Ms. Barr is interviewed about a tremendous longing that resonates with many an infertile woman. Eventually, the mother of two moved forward with her decision to donate eggs, in spite of her husband's clear objections. The interview describes Stephen's response to Jackie's desire as moving from "complete shock" to his "finally agreeing" to talk more about the process at an IVF clinic. He wasn't Jackie's only loved one with reservations, which arose partly due to the lack of anonymity for UK egg donors. In the end, Jackie's husband still "begged" her to not...

Finally. Can We Get Real About Old School Medicine?

2009-08-21T09:12:20-05:00

We wanted to believe in fairy tales, where the knight (doctor) in shining armor (medical school training) swoops by on that fiery steed (health care delivery system) and scoops us up with that comforting and strong arm (medical practice) and delivers us safely back to wholeness. Sometimes I like to be dragged kicking and screaming away from my escapist fantasies.

Fundraising & Praying for Babies

2009-08-11T14:10:49-05:00

I'm pretty sure that if we all did everything "right," there would be no child born into any household that wasn't fully financially afloat. So much for that pie in the sky. It comes up from time to time, the notion that access to infertility treatment should be just as much a "right" as access to other things, like therapies to quell life-threatening conditions. In all these years of talking about it and listening to others, I've decided the arguments are usually circular. Maybe we need to redefine "right". Dear Abby's latest incarnation recently vented her 'negative gut reaction' toward a reader's query about throwing a fertility treatment fundraiser. Needless to say, the TTC Crowd's reaction was quick. Fortunately, the charge was led by Melissa Ford, who shed a little light on the columnist's missed opportunity to help the inquiring reader. Melissa offered well-founded points -- that aside from the...