By Dr. Barbara Faber
One day I was sitting with a patient talking about how it becomes more difficult to get pregnant as you get older. We discussed how many women put off trying to conceive, waiting for that “better” time, when supposedly life gets easier. I remember looking at her and realizing that we were the same age and that I was doing exactly what I was telling my patient not to do!
Time passes quickly when you are busy completing medical residency training, finding a job, getting married, establishing a practice, studying for certification exams and all the other things that occupy the daily grind of a young doctor’s life. I realized that I was 35 years old …and I thought to myself: when did that happen? My husband and I definitely wanted to have a family of our own and we had put it off, waiting for a “better” time to come. The truth is that I hadn’t even considered trying to become pregnant. I had so many other things to accomplish first.
Without going into all the details, I found out after some simple tests that, like many of my patients, I might have some difficulty getting pregnant. I decided that it didn’t matter that it wasn’t a good time and that I had a lot of other things to do. If we wanted a family, we were going to have to start trying right away. I was very lucky and conceived fairly quickly. When we decided to try again, I started fertility treatment and hoped for the best. In our hearts, we felt that if we only had our one daughter, we would still feel very blessed. I ended up doing more treatment cycles than I would generally recommend for most of my patients. Right when I was ready to give up, I became pregnant again.
Sometimes I think that there was a reason that I had difficulty conceiving, and yet was able to overcome it. It allows me to fully empathize with my patients, and at the same time offer them hope. I have been in their shoes, walked the same journey, and made it to a very happy ending (twice).
Dr. Faber is co-medical director of Arizona Reproductive Medicine Specialists, a faculty member of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center and an assistant professor at the University of Arizona. Her interests include all aspects of infertility as well as the endocrinologic disorders affecting reproduction. Dr. Faber has extensive experience in Assisted Reproductive Technologies (IVF), ovulation induction, and endoscopic surgery for the evaluation and treatment of infertility. She has been named a “Top Doc” in Phoenix Magazine.
