WWYD

Friday night on Dateline, there was a story about a couple, that through human error at their RE's lab, were given the wrong embryos during transfer and the wife became pregnant with another couple's embryo. I can't begin to think about how hard that would be to deal with, on either side. I will say that I wouldn't even have to think about carrying someone else's baby for them. Knowing how hard infertility/IVF/FET is, I can honestly say I could never terminate another couple's embryo. Doug and I watched this together and both agreed we would have done the same thing. I wonder if my fellow IF'ers feel the same, would you do it? I know it would be immensely difficult but I couldn't imagine not doing it you know?

This whole situation was made more difficult because the mother who was carrying the baby had had complications with her prior pregnancies, as well as miscarriages before, so they were concerned she could miscarry again or have her health and the baby's health compromised.  It was heart-wrenching story all around. In the end the baby was born healthy but the mother who carried the baby was advised not to get pregnant again. The couple who carried the baby also tried to use a surrogate for their remaining embryos but the surrogate had a miscarriage and subsequent attempts didn't work. They wrote their full-story in a book, found here. 

I know that this probably makes me a horrible, terrible person, but it was really hard for me to connect with them because they had three biological children (granted two were from IF treatments) that the wife was able to carry herself. I know that they felt thankful for that and all, but that made me jealous. Not only did they have three children already, but they had embryos left to freeze and the wife was at least 10 years older than me. At twenty-four and twenty-nine I never had leftover embryos make it to freezing. Ugh, I can't believe my eggs are that bad. Like I said I know this makes me a horrible, terrible person but I can't even get one biological child. 

This story also made me think about a post I read over at The Fertility Lab Insider awhile back about about how one day embryos might have barcodes. Interesting. I have to say that despite all the other worries I have during an IVF cycle, getting the wrong embryos is not one. I guess I've always trusted our embryologist and lab, or I've just been more concerned about eggs being fertilized and how many embryos make it to Day 3.