Comments on: A Fertility Pop Quiz For Ontario #OHIP4IVF #onpoli

By: Paula Schuck

Paula Schuck — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:28:28 +0000

In reply to Jennifer. It is painful to watch someone struggling to conceive a family, or waiting to adopt a child also. Thanks for commenting.

By: Paula Schuck

Paula Schuck — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:27:14 +0000

In reply to Kelly @ City Mom. Kelly: it is totally wrong! Is it embarrassment or ignorance? Either way, fertility is a huge part of women's health care. This drives me nuts right now. Same for the pat answer I get all over town re: some if my daughter's special needs : "well, it's not my area of expertise!" Huh? Then fix that or find someone who will.

By: Paula Schuck

Paula Schuck — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:21:38 +0000

In reply to Kristen. Kristen: that is awful! I am very glad you are okay and you have two healthy boys.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:25:01 +0000

I had an ectopic pregnancy and didn’t know it. I thought I had a miscariage and my family doctor agreed after a cursory pubic exam. She didn’t send me for blood tests or anything. A couple of months later, my fallopian tube burst and I almost died from blood loss. Thankfully everything was ok and I now have 2 healthy sons but it was lack of knowledge (the doctor’s and my own) of fertility issues that almost cost me my life.

You can read the full story here if you want. http://www.babygiveawaysgalore.com/2011/10/family-friday-ectopic-pregnancy.html

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:46:44 +0000

Holy Cow! My fertility started to decline at 28! Eeek. I had no idea. Then again, we were lucky that we didn’t have any problems conceiving either of our girls, but I have a good friend struggling with infertility right now and it’s just painful to watch her go through it. Three rounds of IVF and nothing…so sad.

By: Little Miss Kate

Little Miss Kate — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:39:59 +0000

I have a few friends that are “older” (late 30s) TTC – and no my doctor had never talked to me about fertility and only briefly mentioned in school that fertility decreases over time, more so for women than men.
More education on this would be very helpful.

By: Kelly @ City Mom

Kelly @ City Mom — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:34:09 +0000

Whenever I read your posts on this topic it really gets me thinking. I am so thankful I did not have to deal with infertility issues. And no, no doctors have ever brought the subject up. I’m just realizing now how wrong that is.

By: Annie Brown

Annie Brown — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:57:15 +0000

I will admit that I am not educated in any way on fertility or infertility. It is sad when I did your pop quiz and realized how little I do know about this topic. The cost of IVF is staggering to me. How can anyone afford it? It looks as though Australia is paving the way on funding IVF also wish we could model ourselves after them.

Great article and thanks for educating me on this topic!

By: Paula Schuck

Paula Schuck — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:37:49 +0000

In reply to Jane | @janelebak. You have obviously given this a lot of thought. Thanks for the detail. You might be right. I often think we could solve many issues socially and health wise by adding a simple course at teacher's college and at med school.

By: Jane | @janelebak

Jane | @janelebak — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:49:01 +0000

In my experience, most doctors have no clue how a healthy menstrual cycle works in the first place, so even when you walk in with fertility charts showing a very clear problem, the doctor will glance at them with eyes glazed over and then say, "Well, would you like to be on the Pill?" No, I don't want to be on the Pill, I want to lengthen my luteal phase to something that will sustain a pregnancy.

I've heard of women who visit doctors with fertility charts showing they clearly have not ovulated, but because they're bleeding every 28 days, the doctor says, "You're probably fine. These charts don't show anything."

NaPro doctors are trained to read charts, and really, anyone who's read Take Charge Of Your Fertility can read a chart. So why can't most doctors read a chart? Why do most doctors scoff at the data a woman collects about her cycle when medical science is predicated on collecting data?

But I think that's the answer as to why doctors don't talk about a woman's fertility: because many don't understand it, and therefore they wouldn't really know how to counsel a woman about it in the first place.