I was recently talking to a friend of mine, who had been going through IVF, about her experiences, and she was talking about the cognitive dissonance that seems inherent in all this.
You might never have done IVF, and you might not call it cognitive dissonance, but if you’ve ever been a teenager, you’ll know what she’s on about.
Maybe it was just me (I assumed it was everyone) who, as a teenager, Continue reading
It’s almost Easter, which can mean only one thing… actually, no, I can’t. I think I eggshausted all my egg-based puns two years ago. So that’s not why I’m back. I’m back because I’m taking the next step. Or at least preparing to. More putting on my shoes and thinking about lacing them up, rather than Continue reading
(Oops sorry, I just realised regular readers might have got excited that one of those interminable dates of mine had actually worked out – so apologies if the title of this post got your hopes up, in that particular instance it IS still just me, but who knows what will happen tomorrow/round the corner/when I’m least expecting it? No, in this particular instance, the “it’s not just me” refers to the fact that someone else froze their eggs and wrote about it….)
I wildly applaud anyone writing about the reality of egg freezing so all the cheers and adulation to Eleanor Morgan, who’s written about Continue reading
The title of this post is a bit of a rhetorical question. Or, as some would have it, when referring to headlines in a certain newspaper (“Are immigrants causing cancer?” “Could this £10 pill cure obesity?” “Would YOU wear a dress made from fish guts?” etc etc) QTWTAIN (Questions To Which The Answer Is No). Because no, I don’t think I have been exploited, but undoubtedly some people would.
Front page headline on The Times today “Top clinics exploiting women who freeze eggs”
Women who freeze their eggs in the hope of having children are being exploited by clinics which fail to disclose that the chances of pregnancy are “scarily” small, a leading fertility expert warned yesterday.
The piece went on to talk about people being charged Continue reading
So I’ve sort of mentioned to a few people that I’m thinking that my birthday next year might be the point at which I accept that maybe, after all, I’m not going to go down the conventional route of meeting someone and having children with them. And that maybe, despite my myriad concerns about going it alone, I might have to resign myself to the fact that if I really want a shot at this motherhood lark – which let’s be honest, I’ve had my doubts about – I might just have to find myself a donor, and, as Nike might have said, “just fucking do it” – ironically, of course, without Continue reading
So, you may have heard about what’s happening in the States at the moment with Sofia Vergara — she’s an actress from Modern Family — and her ex, a guy called Nick Loeb. Basically, as far as I can work out, in 2013, they had IVF, and created two embryos which they planned to implant in a surrogate, but subsequently froze. The couple split up and, despite having signed something that said that the embryos could only be used if both of them agreed to it, he’s now trying to bring a legal case against her so that he can use the embryos. She doesn’t want him to.
When people first started talking about this, I was contacted by the Telegraph Continue reading
Given that it’s now over a year since my first cycle, and I knew that I had to pay an annual fee for storage of my eggs, I’d started to worry that I hadn’t heard from the clinic. Maybe they’d tried to contact me and I’d missed their calls/deleted their emails/not received their letters… Maybe they’d thrown away my eggs… Obviously, I didn’t worry so much that I actually got in touch with them, because Continue reading
When I wrote about not being sure if I even wanted kids (which I totally accept seems a totally out of context post for a blog devoted to freezing eggs, although as egg freezing is about choice, I could probably argue that it’s fine to choose not to do something rather than to do something) I did start to wonder if I’d just spent too long thinking about the whole thing.
Which is ironic. Because when I was in a relationship Continue reading
It’s days like Saturday that I wonder how much I really want a child. I slept until after 10am because I hadn’t set an alarm because I didn’t have to get up for anything. I spent nearly two hours in the bath watching TV on my iPad because there was nothing else I really needed to do. Last weekend, I went away with some friends. I didn’t have to tell anyone, or arrange anything, or worry about whether I should be spending the money on something else, or saving it.
I don’t take any of these things for granted. How could I? When I’m surrounded by parents who I know will Continue reading
What a difference a year makes – what a difference a few weeks makes – what a difference a day makes…
This time last year I was single, about to embark on my first cycle of egg freezing, and was generally an emotional wreck.
This time a few weeks ago I was single, and bitching about my generally poor dating prospects.
Today, I’m still single, but I’ve got 14 frozen eggs in a freezer somewhere, and feel pretty positive about my life.
(And it’s not just because in the last few weeks I’ve been on two dates Continue reading
Egged On 