Always Pick the Fertility Doctor Named After Your Cat*

* Unless you named your cat Kevorkian.

Wrong Choice

Right Choice

When it came time to pick a fertility clinic and a doctor, Brian and I had a tough time getting recommendations from our family doctor and Brian's endocrinologist. We had a recommendation from one friend, but that was pretty much it.

One thing that was very important to us was that the doctor was easy to talk to and that the clinic seemed rooted in medicine, not emotions.

I am immediately turned off by clinics that try to appeal to women's emotions with becoming pregnant. For example, there is a local clinic that actually airs radio commercials that start off with a baby crying and say stuff like

To most women, that's just the sound of a baby crying. But to YOU that's the only sound you want to hear. The sound of your baby crying. All you can think of...all you've ever dreamed about...is holding your beautiful baby.

Give. Me. A. Freaking. Break. 

1. That's not how I roll.
2. I very much want to be a mother, but it does not define me. I have plenty of my own goals independent of having children.
3. Are there actually women who think like this?

So, I told Brian that I would not have a doctor or a clinic that preys on emotions like that. The whole process is already emotional and stressful enough; the last thing we need is some doctor trying to complicate the situation to make more money.

We are very fortunate to live in an area that has several clinics and two major medical university hospitals. We looked through reviews of the two hospitals and found that one had better reviews and success rates than the other. As we continued to look, we found a new clinic had recently opened up that had two double-board-certified doctors from the university hospital that we really liked. As we read through their profiles, we really liked them both and one of them had the same last name as our cat, Copland. She also is an accomplished cellist, which appeals to Brian's classical music roots. Certainly divine intervention!

Brian called and spoke to the patient care coordinator who was incredibly friendly and welcoming and set up an initial consultation. (We also verified that the office was in-network for our insurance!)

Dr. Copland was very easy for us to talk to, answered questions directly, and based all her answers in medicine. She also made it very clear that every decision is elective and OUR decision. 

So, to reiterate:

Copland-kitty approves of Copland-doctor

***

Brian and I also really want to thank everyone for the incredible outpouring of support we got for making our journey public. We really can't thank you all enough.

I knew we had made the right decision on Saturday night. It was an emotional day and I was feeling pretty overwhelmed and exhausted by everything that's happening this week. A friend sent me a hilarious video to have on hand to watch whenever I'm feeling stressed out/annoyed. There's no way she could have known that I was having a rough day, but she completely made it way better! :-)