In this post, I explored the decisions you have to make on an infertility journey and how far this world is from the one we imagine growing up. I even made my own graphics - I'm a visual thinker and a CPA, I think in flow charts:) For example, here's how I grew up thinking the process to having kids would unfold:
But as we all know, that plan has blown right out the window. So I reframed my expectations:
I think this second chart captures a point couples facing infertility go in and out of. When initially dealing with an infertility diagnosis, for couples who want to pursue having kids, they will enter this stage. However for some, including myself, the first one (or two or three) treatment plans won't work and we find ourselves making new choices. We may decide to try more advanced therapies or lesser-known solutions (for example, surrogacy or embryo adoption) in which case we'll return to something like the above chart, but will have to pass through the next process to do so:
After all this exhaustive analysis, I realized the crux of the question is really, what's it all about? Why are we doing this? What's our goal and why do we want it? Because without examining these things, we could never decide which path to take next and how long to pursue it.
This is just an overview of the things I covered in my post, but I encourage you to read the full post to really understand the points I'm trying to make, and to see what Shawn and I were thinking, and feeling, about the process for ourselves. Thanks for stopping by!
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