The Quick Fix.

A woman has an issue getting pregnant. A doctor throws a diagnosis at her with limited evidence because it falls into what the diagnosis usually is. So what happens next? The woman puts all her faith into "well, this has got to be it and I'll be pregnant this cycle". But she doesn't get pregnant. And her heart is even heavier because of the added faith.

Why does the woman even think for a moment, that it will work?

Because of that other woman - that one woman we all know, it worked for her. When she took that diagnosis, she made plans on her getting pregnant that month. And whattya know? 2 lines. "Obviously I was going to get pregnant this month" she says. "The doctor told me what my problem was, I took the medication he gave me and I'm pregnant." Like there was no other option even available.

But guess what? This woman was probably going to get pregnant if she took sugar pills. But she will say it was because of medication x. And it validates all her thoughts on the subject. And it propels the myth that medication x really is all that was needed. And the worse part of it all? It gives all us other women, hope that it'll work for us too.

Medication X is ~usually~ clomid or progesterone. And "that woman" is usually a woman who's had kids before and had always gotten pregnant SO easily before. And not that it's taken 3 times now with no BFP yet, her doctor gives her one of these meds and says "call me in a few weeks to make your prenatal appointment!" And she does. And she tells everyone how medication x IS, in fact, a miracle. Which perpetuates through all her friends. And it gets back to us, someone who medication x won't help. But we hear the story "it only took one month for my friend's friend's neighbor's sister!" and it gives us hope.

(note, because I didn't want there to be any confusion. I'm not talking about the woman who only ovulates w/ clomid. Or the woman who really needs progesterone for ~true~ lpd (talked about below)

Clomid and progesterone piss me off to tell you the truth. Too many women expect it to do things it's not going to do and not even meant to do. If you are ovulating, clomid can give you a better ovulation. Sure, it definitely can. But clomid will also wreck havoc on a woman's lining. The cons can actually be worse overall than the pro of that "stronger egg"!

Take an aspirin when you don't have a headache because if you are happening to get a headache right now, it'll help it. (It'll probably also give you a tummy ache though) And there will be a bunch of women who will take that aspirin and sing their praises of not having a headache. While the rest of us will be sitting here with a tummy ache and a headache, because our headaches are caused by migraines, something that a fucking aspirin won't help with at all.

And then there is progesterone. I've read and heard so many things on this, I couldn't even begin to come to a conclusion. I've read that low progesterone, if ovulation did happen, really isn't the cause of miscarriages. And if it is, it's very rare. I've read oral and cream progesterone supplements really don't help things and there is no real point to it. I've read that low progesterone in an ovulating woman points to an ovulation issue and taking supplements isn't going to help the underlying problem at all - it'll increase the levels, but that's it. The egg can still be crap. I've read that progesterone supplements can help women with true LDPs (luteal phase defects) but doctors don't often enough take the time/tests it would take to truly diagnosis this. But still, it's given. Hell, it's given to me and I take it. But is it really helping? Hell, I don't know if it is or not. I'm going to take it on the off chance that it is, but I sure am not putting all my faith on getting pregnant on it.

I say this all because I know someone who falls into each category that I just spoke about. It pisses me off that doctors are giving these women so much faith in the medications they are prescribing. It pisses me off that these women are having harder failed cycles because of this faith the doctors are giving them. And while there are women who did have successes with any (or both) of these medications, it pisses me off that they'll tell everyone that it was the medication that did it for them, when it probably wasn't. And that will lead to more hope being created. More stories of why these medications are miraclulous. And sadly, heavier hearts when there are more failures. We don't need help feeling bad. And we definitely don't need to feel worse that we already will.