Taking Care of You: Fertility For Beginners
This post is part of our Taking Care Of You series in partnership with HelloFlo and VProud’s Master Classes. Master Classes were born out of the belief that all women should have access to vetted health and parenting information via doctors and experts, rather than search engines. This post contains affiliate links.
As someone who has always had complicated periods and hopes to start a family in the future, I was thrilled to discover HelloFlo, VProud and their world of information. I chose to start with the Fertility course as I know it took my mother years to get pregnant and I have similar problems as her. Also, as I am in a same-sex relationship I already know I will be using assisted reproductive technology and I knew little about the process.
This course was one of the best I’ve taken in terms of layout and simplicity to follow. The course is split into five different chapters, each with its own video. This helps to break the information up and means you can come back to the parts you want to recap on easily! The four chapters were: Understanding Your Period, Learning Your Fertile Signs, Difficulty Conceiving, IVF and other Options and Miscarriage. All of these chapters are taught by Margaret Sikowitz, an acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist who has been working in fertility for thirteen years. Margaret came across extremely knowledgeable and kind, she also had a wonderful way of making complicated information easy to digest. There were even printable handouts, including one for all the technical terms used which I believe will be very helpful in the future!
Perhaps the most helpful and interesting part of the course for me personally was being walked through a simple version of the IVF process. For example, Margaret talked about why you must be monitored at least every day once you start injections; this is to make sure there are enough follicles to make this IVF cycle worthwhile. In other words, to be able to say yes, we’re ready to retrieve the eggs. The next step is the embryo transfer and fertilisation, then the fertilised eggs are put back in the uterus after discussing how many to use this time around. Finally, supplemental progesterone is given. For someone like me who had very little knowledge about the step by step process of IVF, this was a great, simple run-down on what to expect.
Overall, I was very happy with the course and feel a sense of relief now knowing the basics for the future. I love that I can go back and watch the videos and note down anything I want to remember and will definitely take further courses in the future!
Learn more about Fertility For Beginners on HelloFlo and join the conversation on VProud.
