I was reading my latest copy of Practical Parenting Magazine and came across a story on online fertility reports. Basically, you enter all your information and it spits out a 33 page report on all things you. It was quite an interesting read!
First off, it tells you the three basic factors that you have to fulfill to become pregnant:
1. You have to produce and release healthy eggs = you have to ovulate
2. The right number of healthy sperm have to be the right place at the right time = your egg needs to be fertilised
3. Your uterus and fallopian tubes need to be healthy and functioning normally = you need to sustain the fertilised egg.
Now, keep in mind this does not talk about sustaining a pregnancy, losing a pregnancy or any of the other things that can happen. It only focuses on falling pregnant. Because lets be honest, there's no point thinking of the other things if there isn't a pregnancy to begin with!
The report summarises your cycle, age, health, any potential impacting factors, alternative treatments and hormone levels. It also provides an overview of your partner considering sperm analysis, age, health and sexual history. It also asks if there has ever been any damage to the testicular area (ouch!). The most interesting point in all of this is apparently men can produce sperm that have two heads or two tails! That seems a little Frankenstein to me!
The report goes on to provide an overview of a variety of fertility treatments. Everything is there for you to get your head around - assisted insemination, IVF, embryo transfer and the list goes on. It then discuses the likelihood of an early pregnancy loss and something referred to as "embryo glue". Basically, it's just a clever marketing name given to a natural hormone found in the fallopian tubes and uterus, which gave hope to millions of women as a magical cure to stop miscarriages! So in reality, it means nothing!
So what did I get out of this? Other than finding out about two-headed sperm, my report said that given I have been pregnant, to my current partner, we can achieve the basics - I ovulate, his sperm gets to where they need to be, and we assume I have all the healthy bits despite the miscarriage. Therefore, there is no foreseeable reason why I shouldn't fall pregnant again.
To be honest, I do take some relief from it. I've been replaying the "boo hoo poor me what if I can't get pregnant again" story in my head for the last few days, so this was a good reminder that that story is a load of crap! Don't get me wrong, it's not like I put all my faith into a computer generated report, but it's just something else that has confirmed what all the doctors have been telling me - you can get pregnant! Now, I just have to keep reminding myself of that!
If you're interested, you can fill out your own report here!
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