Only An Infertile...Part 2

Only an infertile would be completely befuddled by the question, "Are you pregnant"? Holy cow! Don't people realize that there are so very many answers to this question?! For us, there is no (well, rarely no) clear-cut yes or no answer. A "typical" woman could answer this without a whole lot of thought. She'd know if she were pregnant and if she hadn't yet missed a period, the answer would be a resounding "no". However, with infertiles, there seems to be many GRAY areas. So no, this is not a simple question resulting in a simple answer.

Why am I talking about this stuff? Wellllllll....I went to the dentist yesterday. They were going to do full x-rays and asked if I was pregnant. Now, once-upon-a-time, I could have just answered with a simple "no" (or "hell no" at some points in my life). Back then, when I was young and innocent, if I didn't miss my period, I wasn't pregnant. If I had a negative pregnancy test, I wasn't pregnant. Clear cut. Straightforward. easy.

Now-a-days...this question calls for a lot of thought. So I sat there, in the dentist's chair, thinking about all the possible scenarios.   Yesterday was cycle day 14. Obviously I was not/am not pregnant yet. However, my cycles have only been about 24-26 days long lately....so perhaps I could have ovulated a few days ago (although with pcos, you never actually know IF you have ovulated). And if I did, perhaps my egg, by some miracle, was fertilized and making its way down my fallopian tubes. Maybe I will be one of those success stories after all where I don't need meds for baby number two! But then-what if I get X-Rays??? Will that completely obliterate my fertilized egg? Will it be damaged? What if I unknowingly fry my micro-sized offspring???? Talk about guilt!

So I sat there thinking for awhile, while the hygienist was waiting for an answer, probably thinking that I was either slow or irresponsible for not knowing. The best I could come out with was, "Ummm...I don't know. I mean, I guess I could be. But I don't think I am". Then upon seeing the uncertainty on the poor woman's face, I say, "It's probably ok...ummm...just go ahead and do them". How reassuring to her. But really, the chances of me having ovulated are probably pretty nil. Why not get the X-Rays over now, before going back to the specialist?

Feeling that I owed the hygienist some explanation, I say, "Well...I've always had really irregular cycles, so it's sometimes hard to know if I could be pregnant". Now I sound really stupid. The woman, bless her heart, was very kind about it. But just as we were about to start the X-rays she says, "You'll probably be on one of those shows someday about women who don't ever know they're pregnant until they give birth". Now while this could have been insulting, it was not. She didn't mean it that way and I had to laugh at the absurdity.

Absurd because...there's NO WAY in the world that I will ever NOT know I'm pregnant. What this poor woman doesn't know (probably because she has four kids) is that if I had ANY inkling of a possible pregnancy, I would go and test with a test out of my stash of pregnancy tests. Oh yeah, I said stash. I've tested for all sorts of reasons. "Oh, well I have a sniffle, sore throat-might as well pee on a stick". I'm always looking for a reason to test.

Good thing I wasn't further into my cycle...like a week or two after ovulation...that would have opened a whole new can of worms about HcG levels and the sensitivity of home pregnancy tests, etc! Don't want to go there...especially not with the same woman!



 In the end, my mouth was given a clean bill of heath and I'm sure the hygienist will forget all about our strange conversation-though she may be inexplicably drawn to the "I didn't know I was pregnant" shows for several years to come.