In vitro fertilization

After I had been married for a few years and my wish to conceive a child didn’t materialize, I decided to undergo the in vitro fertilization procedure to become pregnant. That was in the year of 1984. At that time this technology was still very young and only a few University Clinics in Germany offered this procedure. But when I called on the hospital for women at the Düsseldorf University, I was relatively fast scheduled for an appointment.

In summer of 1984 I was scheduled for the hormones treatment. At the beginning everything seemed very promising. With the help of ultra-sound it was determined whether a few eggs had matured. And indeed I had developed quite a few eggs that were maturing. But the harvesting of the eggs had to wait until shortly before my ovulation. When my ovulation arrived I was again examined to see how many eggs were still available, but the result then was quite disappointing. Only one bigger follicle was still recognizable. Therefore I was told that the treatment had to be interrupted and that I should try the same procedure again in a couple of months.

But in the mean time I had heard from another patient that the treatment could go on for years, and I wasn’t so excited about this outlook. The woman whom I had met in the consulting room of the women’s clinic told me that she had undergone this procedure already for a few years and after every hormones treatment she had not developed enough eggs. And she confided in me that this experiment would be the last time for her. And she added “If it’s not successful this time, I’m going to get me a job.” After I had heard from her many failures, I myself didn’t feel encouraged.

When the physician told me that the treatment had to be interrupted because the eggs had disappeared before my ovulation, I was very disappointed. I asked the physician whether it would still be possible for me to become pregnant the natural way. Since my closed Fallopian tubes were the problem, the physician suggested repairing the tubes so that I had a chance to conceive naturally.

And this procedure was performed then. The physician operated on my Fallopian tubes and they also tried to fertilize the one egg that was still available. During the operation they found one bigger and two smaller follicles. But only the bigger one was harvested and placed together with my husband’s sperm. But the union of egg and sperm didn’t take place here either.

After this experience I had new hopes again that one day I would have a child, which would have been conceived the natural way.

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2 responses to “In vitro fertilization”

  1. Hey! I like your post “o fertilization | Ute’s ShadowBlog” so well that I like to ask you whether I should translate into German and linking back. Greetings Engel