The couples Josephine and I talked to for our stories on infertility are some of the best-read, best-researched people we’ve found anywhere.

They talk in the acronyms and language of the IVF set. Hormone levels and daily body temperatures are tracked with the fervor shown by Wall Street analysts following their favorite stocks. They can tell you exactly how many rounds of Clomid (a fertility drug) or IUI (Intrauterine Insemination) they did before trying IVF (in vitro fertilization) and then, whether they’re combining the IVF with PGD (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis). They refer to their doctors as “RE’s” (reproductive endrocrinologists) and when they mention Resolve, everybody knows they are talking not of their own personal motivation but of the national infertility advocacy group.

And so it’s not surprising that the clinics who compete for their business have some of the most responsive doctors around. They have to be - they’re dealing with an incredibly motivated patient population who typically pay out of pocket. And as competition intensifies, these doctors are vying to win new patients with their success rates, their money-back guarantees and their outreach to rural areas.

It’s a field of medicine unlike almost any other, as you’ll see from the third story in the series.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 10:22 pm and is filed under IVF, Main, Related Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.