No wonder people have no clue about Infertility!

I always wonder why people in the world have no clue about infertility or fertility treatments. I always chalked it up to ingorance or just stupidity, but now I am realizing that the reason the public is so stupid is because all the information they get about infertility is wrong! People get their information from television- we get news, sports scores, the latest realtity show, and also information about infertility. There are several TV shows and big screen movies that have dealt with infertility and not one so far has gotten it right.

1. Friends- Defiantley one oh my personal favorite shows of all time, and fertility was dealt with twice in two difference story lines with two different characters.
First was Phoebe- she went through IVF to be be a surrogate for her brother and carried and delievered triplets. Now in the eposide where the her brothers and his wives embroyos were transfered to Phoebe's uterus, minutes after the procedure Phoebe took a home pregnancy test and it was positive. Now that is SO not true- its takes about 2 weeks to find out if IVF was successful not 2 minutes.
Secondly was Chandler and Monica who tried to concieve unsuccessfully and met with a fertility specalist. They were told they needed to use a surrogate mother or use donor eggs- now that makes NO sence. If a woman needs a surrogate to carry her child then that means she can't carry it herself, becaue she has uterine issues- but then why would donor eggs be useful- it doesn't who's eggs you are using- if the uterus isn't getting the job done then donor eggs aren't going to help. Chandler and Monica went on to adopt twins in the season finale.

2. Sex and the City- AHHH- my personal favorite. Charlotte and Trey tried unsuccessful to concieve before meeting with Dr. Peck- it was determined after one round of tests that Charlotte had hostile cervical mucus and was attacking Trey's sperm- they were told to do IVF. Now hostile cervical mucus is really not that big of a deal and IUI usually will fix that problem. Charlotte and Trey were also told that they had a 15% chance of concieveing naturally, well a normal healthy couple has only a 15-20% every cycle- so that makes so sence either.
Also, Bitsy Vom Muffling who was married to Bobby Fien and was very old, over 45 years of age got pregnant with acupuncture- again acupuncture is great for overall health and fertility, but it won't get you pregnant at that age, good god nothing will, except maybe donor eggs or a surrogate!
In the Sex and City Movie- after Charlotte and her new husband Harry adopted Lily- Charlotte concieved naturally- Charlotte talked about how her OBGYN told her that most couples that adopt will get pregnant on their own. That is actually incorrect- and gives people the wrong idea.

3. And to round out the top three- the big screen blockbuster, Baby Mama starring Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. In this movie Tina Fey is desperate to have a baby- she enlists the help of a surrogate after several failed attempts to carry her own child. Amy Poehler plays the surrogate. In the movie Amy has Tina's embroyos tranfered into her uterus and then has sex with her husband, concieving her own child and not Tina's child. Well this is OH SO WRONG! There is no way that you can ovulate an egg when you are a surrogate- the only eggs that can implant at that time are the embroyos that are transferred to the uterus during the embroyo transfer. Again giving people wrong information.

I understand people that do not have to deal with fertilit treatments not knowing about things or even caring, however its important to know about what your friends and family are going through, so if you have someone you know going through fertility treatments try to educate yourself, ask questions and don't go off what you see on TV and in the movies, because I am yet to find one TV show or movie who actually portrays fertility treatments correctly. The closest would be on the Discovery Channel.