“A Few Good Eggs”
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Dr. Eldon Schriock has been at the forefront of assisted reproductive technology since 1981. He was a member of the medical team that performed the first in-vitro fertilization treatment in Northern California. More about Dr. Schriock · Read Other Posts |
A Few Good Eggs; Two Chicks Dish on Overcoming the Insanity of Infertility is one of the best books about infertility written from the patients’ perspective. Julie Vargo and Maureen Regan have written a very readable and entertaining book presenting the entire gamut of the infertility experience covering diagnosis, procedures and the psychological challenges faced by patients – mainly women – facing infertility.
The book is organized chronologically starting from the early disbelief after realizing that one might be infertile, through the testing procedures, physician diagnosis and ultimately treatments.
Back-up options for those women and couples for whom treatments are unsuccessful are also explored. Along the way, the authors provide stories of their own experiences as well as the experiences of other women with whom the authors have met and talked in order to write the book. These two women personally went through many of the procedures and shared the same emotions that most fertility patients experience, their unique perspective brings a human touch to their writing. This is a refreshing contrast to the books written for the consumer by physicians or other health care professionals that work in the field.
However, because the book is written by patients and not reproductive endocrinologists (REs), there are some areas that not all REs will agree with, such as their perspective on immunology and infertility. The authors also seem to have gone through their treatments some years ago as the list of drugs is not current with some of the drugs now commonly used for ovulation induction. For example, they mention Pergonal, which is not currently available and do not cover the recombinant FSH medications most commonly used today, Gonal-f and Follistim. Plus, I doubt that a reproductive endocrinologist proofread the chapter on medications because they misnamed Repronex as “Repromax.” I also think their description of the side effects of these drugs is frightening and not typical of the side effects experienced by most women using them in treatment.
The book does provide a lot of useful information in a personal and accessible fashion. Most of the facts are correct. And most of all, the publication encourages women not to wait to get help if they think they may be infertile.
– Eldon Schriock, MD
Tags: Female Infertility, Patient Stories, Resources, Support
