IVF Books discussion

Here, everyone can post a recommendation about an IVF book. Please add book link, for others to find it more easily and write why you loved it!

I'll start.

The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood

I've read this one recently. She has one daughter from her first IVF, but she described wonderfully what a person feels at this stage: when the "normal" ways failed and now, more artificial ones must be also tested.

The book is written as a non-fiction, but she mingles it with her own experience. She covered also other people's stories. One gay couple, someone who adopted, someone who had miscarriages, how it is in the animal world... very wide look into the topic.

If you've read it, please feel free to discuss it. I would like to know how this book helped you.

It helped me because I've read it at one point when I told to myself: "this is the last attempt. When I finish this, that's it", but then I've read the chapter saying that many times people say this. But after that attempt fails, they wish to move on. I've recognized myself and I've remembered many times before when I've also said that's it, and here I am, still trying...

Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, an Oscar, an Atomic Bomb, a Romantic Night, and One Woman's Quest to Become a Mother
This book is based on the author’s own experience. It describes the IVF process very well — how it goes and what stages a marriage goes through while trying to conceive.

The book tells the story of a woman who didn’t want a child for most of her life, only to find out later that everything becomes much harder with time. She was a feminist, thinking and writing about women’s roles, but when she tried to conceive, the whole situation was cast in a different light.

I was already divorced at the time I read this book, but I recognized and remembered how infertility had a similar impact on my own marriage as well.

What this book gave me was hope. She went through several miscarriages, but in the end, she did have her daughter, Daisy. So, waiting for Daisy paid off.

If you’ve read it and had different impressions, please share them.

Letters to an Embryo

Here is my own book. I would like to hear your thoughts on it. I decided to publish it to help women who feel that their unborn frozen embryos have the right to live. Maybe this is just my own feeling, but I know some other women who experience it in a very similar way.

So, let's bring it to the surface and talk about it. I would like to know your feelings and impressions about it!

Not Broken: An Approachable Guide to Miscarriage and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss

I think every woman who experiences several miscarriages and still is trying, should read this book. This comes from an expert, but it is written in such language that average person can understand it easily. It describes all the known causes and how to test on them, it describes also topics where experts to not agree, it explains statistics around the miscarriages. Sometimes scientific evidence is clear: there were several test trials, and they all have the same conclusion and then official medical associations give certain recommendations what to do. But sometimes, different scientific trials are not all showing the same result, so experts don't know what to do. In such cases, different doctors will give you different advice, this book explains why.

Now the favourite part: what this book gave to me. After 3 miscarriages normally woman feels that the chance of successful pregnancy is 0%. This book reveals that the statistic does not confirm that. Chance is much higher, so here statistic brings real hope, based on scientific facts. Then, by explaining in details possible causes of miscarriage where scientists themselves do not agree, she explains in detail why some say that some cause should be considered and tested, while others don't think it should be taken into account. Sometimes they take into account cost, emotional impact or physical consequences that some aggressive method would have if applied. This can help. When you are not successful in something, it can easily be that you think your doctor is to blame, although he is just trying to help you. These explanations can help patients understand their doctors better and make smarter decisions about their next steps.