Written by Alex, @wheneverybodymatters
Infertility is a world of contradictions, and this is one of the more ironic ones. For many protocols, such as full cycles of IVF or some frozen embryo transfer protocols, doctors start us on birth control to have more control over when we start the cycle, or to help control it overall. At the same time, they tell us to start taking a prenatal, since we’re preparing our bodies for a cycle in the hopes that we’ll get pregnant. So, they tell us to take birth control and prenatals together. I remember the first time I was asked to do this, I thought – seriously? I went off birth control, why would I possibly want to go on it again. But I know that hormonally they’re trying to gain some control over our bodies and trying to help us get pregnant. Just so ironic!
I have also been to doctors that don’t use birth control and go more with the natural cycles – but for me, I really never got natural cycles, so I would end up needing at least Progesterone to stimulate a period…so birth control would’ve done that too.
Now I continue to take prenatals more out of habit – I’ve been taking them for 5 years+ now and even though I won’t ever be pregnant again myself, and even though we’re expecting our child via surrogate (YAY!), there are still a lot of good vitamins in prenatals for women, plus I have a ton of them still! I also think a lot of us continue to take them because, let’s be honest, we will all always hope for a random miracle pregnancy to occur! Even when it’s physically impossible, infertility makes you hope for the impossible – because we all need hope!
I have also just started taking birth control again, but for me, it’s for something called “induced lactation”. I’ll be taking about this in more depth in the future, as it’s a topic that’s relatively unknown, and has a lot to it – but basically I’m on a protocol of medications, and in a couple months pumping, to try to stimulate breastfeeding without actually having a child myself. My goal is to be able to do at least some of the feedings for our child due in December, but since I am not the one that’s actually pregnant, I will have to do this by trying to induce the lactation. Again, this will need a longer post on its own. But overall, it’s completely ironic to me that I also have to now take birth control to try to feed our child that I can’t be pregnant with myself – infertility is just crazy pants. And to take that a step further, I am having a really hard time FINDING the birth control because of COVID-19! Apparently, birth control is more popular than ever, and I keep having to explain that no, I’m not trying to prevent a pregnancy, my body can do that on its own. I’m actually trying to induce breastfeeding. But almost no one has heard of that. So hopefully I can just get enough to last me the few more months that I need to be on it!
Overall, infertility is a series of contradictions, ironies, and so much more! And we all know it’s a crazy world to be in!
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