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Introduction

If you’re dealing with infertility, you may feel alone, confused, and depressed over the potential loss of the dream you’ve cherished since childhood: the dream of having a baby of your own.

Infertility is a medical problem for 6–8 million Americans. Deemed a disease by the World Health Organization but debated as a symptom by many professional organizations, insurance companies often deny coverage for its diagnosis and treatment. Many people (the “just relax and you’ll get pregnant” crowd) don’t understand its biological origins, and a few (the “take this magic pill and you’ll get pregnant, guaranteed!” group) even exploit those suffering from it. There is good news on the infertility front, however; not only are medical treatments for infertility making great gains, but there’s also more awareness of the emotional and social effects of infertility. In fact, most reproductive medicine centers like to call themselves fertility centers now.

Getting Pregnant For Dummies was conceived by combining Jackie Thompson’s knowledge of infertility from a patient’s viewpoint, Lisa Rinehart’s wealth of information as an infertility nurse and reproductive law attorney, and Dr. John Rinehart’s 40 years of clinical practice in reproductive medicine. We wrote this book so that patients dealing with infertility will know that they’re not alone and what they may be up against. We hope it finds its way to the bookshelves and nightstands of all the patients who need it to help find the road to their baby.

About This Book

This book is our attempt to help those of you who want to walk into the doctor’s office and not walk out feeling out of control of your own fertility. Our vision is to provide fertility patients — both those at the starting line and those closer to the finish — and the people who love them with as much information as we can on the options available to them. We discuss topics ranging from the scientific to the spiritual.

You can read through this book from front to back and feel confident that you can find the answer to just about any fertility issue, from natural family planning to cloning. But if you’re like most people, you’ll probably look through the table of contents, zero in on the chapters that affect you, and jump directly to them. This book is meant as a resource, which means that you can go back to it whenever a new issue or question arises and find the answer you need without reading through everything that comes before.

This book is meant for people with every degree of fertility expertise, from the novice to the jaded, been-there-done-that patient. The no-tech and low-tech fertility chapters come first, so you can skip them if you’re already a veteran and move right into high-tech and really high-tech stuff found in the second half of the book.

We intersperse personal stories throughout the book; these (we hope!) make interesting reading from the viewpoint of either Lisa (an infertility nurse/attorney), Jackie (an infertility patient), or Dr. R (the IVF doctor). If you skip them, you won’t miss any essential information, although you may miss a few humorous sidelines or “I did it, so you can too” stories.

To help you pick out information from a page, we use the following conventions throughout the text to make elements consistent and easy to understand; the last thing we want to do is confuse you!

 New terms appear in italics and are closely preceded or followed by an easy-to-understand definition. Italics are also used for emphasis.

 Bold highlights the keywords in bulleted lists.

We think every word in this book is interesting and educational, but we understand that sometimes you just need a quick answer to a burning question. Other times you want to discover everything possible about infertility, even the technical stuff. We’ve designated some information as interesting-but-not-essential-to-read. Feel free to read it, but if you skip it, you’re not missing anything vital. Optional sections are

 Text in sidebars: Shaded boxes that appear throughout the book. The information they contain may be anything from personal stories to technical information.

 Anything with a Technical Stuff icon attached: This information is interesting but not essential. It simply enhances your understanding of a particular topic.

Note: The information provided in this book is based upon the best evidence available today. The authors used practice guidelines from both The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses when they were available. Science is always discovering new things, so by the time you read this, some of these sources may have been revised.

Foolish Assumptions

We assume that you’re reading this book because you want to know more about infertility and because, despite your hopes to the contrary, you and/or a loved one, are dealing with infertility on one level or another, be it your first child or your fifth. We also assume that you want to

 Understand the biologic causes of infertility

 Discover what you can do to overcome infertility, from proper timing to changing your diet

 Be up to date on the latest medical and surgical treatments for infertility

 Find out about the newest genetic testing for you and your embryos

 Pursue options for parenthood if the traditional roads fail you, from donor egg to use of a surrogate

Infertility is not the end of the road or the end of your dream of parenthood. There is help available, and we’re here to help you find the resources you need, whether your fertility issues are simple to solve or complex.

Icons Used in This Book

Icons are the little images that appear occasionally in the margins next to the text. We use them to let you know that a topic or piece of information is special in some way. Getting Pregnant For Dummies includes the following icons:

This icon identifies information that’s helpful and can save you time or trouble.

This icon highlights key points in the section you’re reading.

This icon stresses information that describes potentially serious issues, such as side effects to medication or other dangerous problems. Pay attention to warnings — they can keep you out of trouble!

This icon signals information that’s interesting but not essential.

If any of us has a personal story that is funny, informative, inspirational, or otherwise interesting, we identify it with the Personal Story icon. These anecdotes are never essential reading, but they’re usually entertaining!

Beyond the Book

This book is already full of information, but we’ve also provided a handy online Cheat Sheet of some of the most important or most helpful tidbits on the topic of fertility and getting pregnant such as the most important fertility tests, notes about medications and what questions our fertility doctor will ask you. Simply go to www.dummies.com and type “Getting Pregnant For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the search box.

Where to Go from Here

This book is set up so that you can open it at any point and be able to understand the information right in front of you.

The early chapters of this book deal with infertility issues that can be solved fairly easily, like timing. If you don’t have a basic understanding of human biology, Chapter 2 can help you understand the complexity of the human reproductive system.

On the other hand, if the emotional aspects of infertility are impacting your relationships, Chapter 10 may be more what you need to read.

The point is that you don’t have to read everything (although you certainly can, and you may discover something you never knew before)! Just flip to the table of contents or index, find a subject that interests you, and turn to that chapter.

However you choose to use this book, we hope it’s helpful.