Wednesday, March 22, 2006

That's my bush

According to a new book, Laura Bush took fertility drugs to conceive the twins. Sounds like she tried Clomid, then moved on to injectibles ("Laura was given a shot of gonadotropin to adjust her hormones to help her conceive"). Here's the stunningly inaccurate description of the whole process from a "friend" of Laura's (as quoted in the NY Post):
"Her temperature went up on a Saturday, indicating she was ovulating," Laura's close friend Nancy Weiss told Kessler. "On Monday, she had the shot. Within a few days, they believed she was pregnant. When Laura took the second medication, it worked immediately. So the twins were miracle girls. She obviously was not able to carry children without the hormone adjustment."

Let's see, how many inaccuracies can we count? (1) if her temperature went up, she had already ovulated and any drug intervention at that point would be useless, beyond progesterone; (2) she had one shot, two days after she had already ovulated? yes, that's exactly how injectible gonadotropin therapy works; (3) "Within a few days, they believed she was pregnant." Unless George and Laura made super duper speedily implanting embryos, there is no way she could have even the slightest pregnancy symptoms after only a few days. (4) "She was not able to carry children without the hormone adjustment." Sigh. So many things wrong with that sentence.

Apparently this book was written with White House cooperation, so it's probably at least somewhat accurate. I wonder, if the injectibles hadn't worked, what would they have done? Would they have moved on to IVF? And what would they have done with their totsicles, had any remained? Donated them to be snowflake babies? (We know that George would not have donated them for scientific research.)

This could be a really good opportunity for Laura Bush to talk about infertility and reproductive medicine, to help normalize fertility treatments in the eyes of America. Unfortunately, I don't think this will happen. It'll get written about in a lurid way in the tabloids (as in the link above), and Laura will remain steadfastly silent. And a great opportunity to examine GW's policies on reproductive health in light of his family's own experiences will pass, unheeded by the press.

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