<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" On Thursday, I had my retrieval, and it went really well! It was pretty painless, except for my encounter with Dr. OLGA (click here to read about the encounter). But I won&amp;#039;t get into that here.   As I&amp;#039;ve already pointed out, I have a bad attitude. If Mark and I somehow got on Supernanny? Nanny Jo Frost would start by putting me in the naughty chair for being a big, fat, incessant whiner. I have been trying to be a little more positive, and I have come up with a list of positive things about Infertility and In-Vitro Fertilization. The list is as follows:   1. Knowledge I must admit that before the label of &amp;quot;INFERTILE&amp;quot; was tattooed across my forehead, I was guilty of saying all the wrong things to people. I would ask people when they were going to have kids, and if they were trying, and told people to have fun trying. In other words: I was an insensitive douche.   Now I know better! I mean, you never want to be the uneducated jerk who is trying to be nice but is saying all the wrong things. And I realize that at any point, someone could be going through something big, and horrible, and that being nosy is never desirable, no matter what.     2. Modesty Or, the loss of Modesty.   When I would go to the gynecologist, I would be all shy. Every single time, he would have to ask me to &amp;quot;spread my thighs a little more.&amp;quot; Getting a breast exam? GAH! Killah! Mortifying! And it wasn&amp;#039;t just physically. I would be afraid to speak up \u2013 to ask questions, to say what I needed or wanted to say. I&amp;#039;d let them rush me through.   I was really proud of myself yesterday because I wanted Valium for my transfer. At my last transfer, my bladder was overfilled and began to spasm. It was like 10 knives stabbing me in the bladder, and all of my urine was stuck inside my body and had to be removed with a catheter. I wanted to have my guts relaxed for this transfer and I didn&amp;#039;t want to be anxious because of what happened before. I figured it wasn&amp;#039;t too much to ask since other clinics routinely prescribe Valium for the transfer.   I was nervous about it, but I did it! And when they forgot to write something up for me, I called the next day and had them order it up for me! It seems small, but I would have never done it before this whole infertility thing.   3. Dignity Or, the loss of dignity!   The definition of dignity: bearing, conduct, or speech indicative of self-respect or appreciation of the formality or gravity of an occasion or situation.   Clearly, I have let go of the conduct and speech indicative of the gravity of the infertility situation that has fallen into my lap. If you had told me three years ago that I would be blogging about my vagina in a very public forum, I would have told you to shut the hell up! (No problem with swearing three years ago, obviously.)    Now? I&amp;#039;ll gladly tell anyone who will listen! I make jokes about my vagina! I let everyone I know read it!   4. Underwear Neuroses One of my many neuroses involves the placement of underwear in the office of the gynecologist or the RE.    My underwear must be completely hidden before I hop on the table and get in the stirrups. If they are at all visible, I concoct a dozen stories in my head that narrate what the doctor or nurse must think of me for not hiding my underwear. I&amp;#039;ve even been known to stuff my underwear in my purse, which is disgusting because then everything in my purse has touched my underwear, and my underwear touches my lady business.   During my IVF stimulations, every single pair of pants that I own were too tight. Which was not really a problem because I own, like, 50 dresses. And I despise panty hose and make it a point to never wear them. Since I was just wearing a dress and some undies, I was forced to live with the fact that my underwear had to show because there was nothing to use as a cover.   I&amp;#039;m proud to say that I&amp;#039;m over my visible underwear phobia! (Well...sort of.)   5. Blood Work Phobias I was terrified of getting my blood drawn before I started fertility treatments. In fact, I would pass out every single time I had even one vial drawn. It was pathetic.   Thanks to every other day blood work for both of my IVF cycles, I am now an old pro! Granted, I still can&amp;#039;t watch, but I don&amp;#039;t even get woozy now. I don&amp;#039;t want to cry. I don&amp;#039;t pass out cold.  I still get all sweaty, but I can&amp;#039;t really help it.   What positive changes have you experienced as a result of fertility treatments? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/body/pregnancy-fertility/a3590/trying-to-be-positive/>