OK, yeah. “All” was wrong. Aside from IVF, 98% of us (in the US).
Your kids are waaaay more expensive than most. This is a fact they can use against their peers in school to assert dominance. Also, I blinked at the plural; did you just get lucky, or are you well-heeled enough to have gone through this more than once? Also also, my regards to your wife for the hellish pre-op chemical routine she probably had to endure. Yeah, your kids were hard-won. Kudos.
EssentialNPC@lemmy.world 7 months ago
We happened to live in the U.S. state with the best reproductive rights laws and have the best health insurer for IVF in that state. It did cost thousands of dollars, but it was still 4 digits overall. We were getting by on a single income at the time, but it was really the health insurance and state laws that made it doable.
We needed two cycles because the first failed completely, but the second cycle (ICSI for those who care) produced multiple embryos. They only implanted one at a time, so my second kid is a freezer baby.
But yeah, my wife has a true, diagnosed needle phobia and did it anyway. She is a God damn trooper.
sxan@midwest.social 7 months ago
It wasn’t is, but my SIL went through this; same process: 2 tries, second was a success, and a third is waiting. But she’s at the age where it’s getting to be a real concern for viability, so the third will probably forever remain an unrealized possibility.
That injection routine sounded hellish, though.
EssentialNPC@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Yeah, it is. The injections suck, and the hormone shifts are awful. One of my friends is a general practitioner in the Navy, and every time he prescribes any fertility hormone, he also gives a referral for couples counseling. “I know you believe you won’t need it, and you might be right, but in my experience by the time you realize you need it, you need it RIGHT NOW.” The IVF hormones are around then the ones he can prescribe, and it was a wild ride.
Of course I don’t know your SIL, but please extend my best to her and her family at some point. As one stranger on the Internet who knows roughly the path she walked, I am very happy it went well for her in the end.
Also, real talk, you sound like a great in-law to her for being so aware of everything. Kudos to you.