Yeah, I know: that's an explosive subject line, ain't it? Well, I've been thinking a lot about it lately. For those of you who aren't entrenched in the world of TTC, selective reduction is an intentional reduction in the number of fetuses a woman carries in a multiple-fetus pregnancy. Most especially, in a pregnancy with high-order multiples (HOM), generally regarded as triplets or more.
When you've been TTC a long time, you're just about willing to try anything that might help you conceive. And drugs can help by causing more follicles to grow. More follicles= more eggs= more chances that at least one of them will fertilize, implant, and become your baby. But I really think that there are too many women blithely going through cycles with too many follicles. IVF is different; with IVF, the number of embryos transferred into the uterus can be controlled. But when you're growing a lot of follicles for an IUI or timed intercourse cycle, there is no control, other than having "excess" follicles aspirated or choosing to do SR if needed.
The thing that scares me is how many women say they "just couldn't" do SR, yet they go on with their cycles with large numbers of follicles. Yeah, and nine months later, you'll see a human interest piece on the news about a set of quintuplets born. And on the other hand, there are a lot of women who still don't get pregnant, regardless of the 5 follicles they had plumped and ready to go. There are just no guarantees, and that's the problem. I just don't understand how some people can be so blase about the chances of, and risks of, a HOM pregnancy.
It's kinda like a teenager having sex without a condom: sure, you might get pregnant, but there's a higher chance that you won't. Buuut... if you DO get pregnant, then you have to make really hard choices. Do you keep the child? Put her up for adoption? Have an abortion? All tough decisions, and all with their own consequences.
And don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that I think that all HOM pregnancies should be reduced, or that every cycle with multiple follicles should be cancelled. I'm just saying that I think that women need to take the possibility of multiples more seriously, and be aware that no matter if 40 women told you it didn't happen to them, that it could happen for you. And that if it does, you're either going to have to abort one or more of your babies, or toughen up and be prepared to raise more than one.
I just want people on infertility boards to stop trying to be cheerleaders all the time, and to sometimes, just sometimes, give the tough love that's needed in certain situations.
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2 comments:
You know how I feel about this.
(A big part of why I read your blog is because of you're willingness to say what you think and feel even if it isn't popular.)
I understand what you are saying. Before I went to the RE I thought about what would happen if I ended up with a multiples pregnancy and I've come to a decision that works for me. But I do agree that there are many women who don't think about the long term part. When you are pregnant with more than 1, your chances of going to term decrease making the chance of a baby with problems increase. A difficult choice all around.
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