Category Archives: Science
Drive-By Thoughts: Fantasy Vs. Reality
No one’s feelings are ever more important than the truth.
Like this:
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam…
Update: Dr. Berger has assured me that he has nothing to do with the spam bots.
I recently checked my blog’s automatic spam filter. It seems a number of not spam comments were falsely flagged as such. They are now up. I apologize for the delay to those comment authors. But as I was checking my spam notices, I discovered something weird. I have a disproportionate amount of spam related to infertility, including IVF and tubal reversals, the latter of which specifically advertising one, Dr. Berger. Yeah, kind of barking up the entirely wrong bush on a childfree blog. What’s weird is a lot of these spam comments are on posts completely unrelated to my tubal ligation, or fertility, or childfreedom, or children. Weird! This was on my Sticky: WARNING! OPINIONS AHEAD! post. It contained no pictures and no mention of children. And yet:
Hi Julie,I found your blog via Wendy’s class. I’ll be in it also.Love your photos. Such an aalodbre little boy you have. You have so much good info on here. I’ll come back frequently to check it all out.-Carol
I’m not currently in any classes and I don’t know any Wendys. I’m no photographer, most of the pics on this site are from my phone or just taken from random sites. I certainly don’t have any children, let alone any boys. Imagi-Gary is not real. I can’t think of who she might be talking about, or what photo. WTF?! It gets weirder. This was on My Childfree Rules Re-Write: About Being Childfree. Anyone who read that would have no doubt about my childfree status, and yet this was posted, apparently to me (and not to anyone else.)
Congratulations on your beautiful bludne of joy and the relief of problems from your tubal ligation. I too have have so many problems of the same nature since my TL 13 yrs ago. I received my TR surgery on my birthday 4/28/2009 and turned 41. I did it due to having the same problems and to also be able to conceive again if possible. I am kind of skeptical due to my age, but I am very healthy otherwise. My husband was concerned due to my problems and is hoping I will be better than before. He is more excited now than he was before my TR surgery to be able to conceive. He is so anxious he can’t hardly wait for me to heal to try and conceive. We both have children from a previous marriage but none together. We believe it will be wonderful to have a child together and raise it together. Thank you for your encouragement.Annmarie M.Tennessee -Gina
My only “bundle of joy” would be my adorable dog, Molly. And I have had NO problems with my tubal ligation as “post tubal ligation syndrome” is likely not even real. I’m sure as hell not encouraging anyone to pollute this already horrendously overpopulated world with more children, especially when they already have some, and especially when their advanced age is likely to result in children with health problems, because such actions are selfish and stupid. On the note of not giving a crap about any Infertile-Myrtle’s non-problems of infertility, I got these two nonsense spam messages. Both of these were on Sterilized On World Population Day, which, as you might guess, was about how I finally triumphed in obtaining permanent sterilization, and just happened to do so on a day that serves to remind us of our growing overpopulation crisis.
I am so glad to see this post. I’m 45 yrs old and had my tubes tied (cauterized) 11 yrs ago after my third child was born. Same as Penni, the fertility cilnic I went to would not perform the reversal because of my age. IVF is apparently my only solution. I’ve gone through all the hormone test (FSH, sonohystogram, etc.) and I was told that there’s follicles we can work with.I have finally decided to go ahead with my original plan to have my tubes reversed. My current partner doesn’t have any children while I had 3 with my first marriage. I would really love to have another child and I hope that someday, I can have another one. I am planning my reversal for September of this year. -Austin
Weirdly, this comment was in response to Beth, who wrote:
Just wanted to say a very sincere thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences pre- and post-TL; honestly, several of your posts have been the most helpful things I’ve read so far. I’ve got a TL scheduled in a couple of days, and was doing a bunch of web surfing to try to make sure I have a thorough understanding of what it will be like and what (if anything) I need to worry about for afterward. I found it refreshing to read something that’s not borderline hysterical.
-Beth
Yeah, I don’t think Beth and Austin are on the same page here. Here’s another comment on the same post, evidently posted to me.
What an inspiration to read your story. I will be 46 in Sept. Had my fsh tsteed and it came back 2.9! Thats when I really beleived maybe my eggs werent to old yet -like all the other websites statistics and Dr. tell us they are at our age! Like many of you I already have 4 wonderful boys 26-11 yrs old and my fiance has none. I am torn between invtro and TR. I also want to experience getting pregnant the natural way not through invitro. Thanks for posting your story of encouragement for all of us. Many blessings and prayers to all!! -Auth
Not only is this, again, a story bout a happily childfree person joyfully obtaining a tubal ligation, and doing so on World Population Day, but his is also the blog of a borderline anti-natalist and outspoken atheist. Ok, now I start getting ads for Dr. Berger tubal reversal. Oddly, they don’t even seem to be on the post where I dismiss “post tubal ligation syndrome,” as little more than a medical myth, according to current medical research. This was on Sterilized On World Population Day.
I just finished the first and prlobaby last IVF treatment that resulted in 45 shots over 10 days, surgical retrieval of eggs, only 2 fair to poor embryos that were transplanted, and a negative pregnancy test. I was told because of my age 45 that IVF was my only true hope of having another baby (I have 3 children already and my husband has 1 from a prior marriage). My husband is 12 years younger than me and we both want children together. After getting a phone call today from my doctor on the heels of the bad news, she doesn’t think I should try again because of my age. While devastated at this news, I am taking heart and hope from the testimonies on this page that all will be well for us. We will get pregnant the old fashioned way after a little help from Dr. Berger and his team. It certainly should be a heck of a lot more fun than what I just went through. -Miranda
IVF, it’s selfish, stupid, narcissistic, wasteful, and disgusting. I hope it fails every time. Stop breeding more people into this overpopulated world and adopt if you really must have kids. And stop wasting medical resources so your narcissistic asses can have your genetic replicants. This was posted to me on the post, Kids and Soldiers, which is about soldiers in my company, including myself, volunteering to help out in child-related activities. The comment below has nothing at all to do with the content of the post.
I just want to thank Dr. Berger and staff for helping my couisn Pamela and her husband to having a baby. She tried for the longest time after she had the surgery to have a baby and had 2 miscarrages(sp) and then she got pregnant with Baby Jesus (aka Porky as we call him) he is the sweetest lil baby. Pamela and Jesus are the loving parents of this beautiful baby boy. I speak for the whole family when i say THANK YOU for helping them get pregnant and having this miracle baby. We are greatful for what you done for this family. To all the women that want to have babies beileve in Dr. Berger and his staff at Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center they will help you in anyway possible to make a miracle come true for you!!THANK YOU GUY!!!! -Sachin
This next one was posted on A Kid Visited My Home. Nothing Broke. I’m Not Surprised, which is a diary post, which is mostly about how I actually don’t hate kids, and how the stupid advice given in various child-proofing articles is completely unnecessary when parents actually parent. So, again, the comment has nothing to do with the post.
Dr. Berger, I am a 28 years old woman hoping for anohter chance to have anohter baby. I have two boys and they are 14 and 11 years old. I had my tubes tied when my youngest was 5 years old Now I am with someone that doesn’t have any kids he loves my kids and is very good to them, but I would like for us to have our own .he is a good guy and at the beginning I was afraid to tell him about my tubes tied, but god helped me and I told him ..he was sad but then we found your website and we are very excited about meeting you and hoping you could help us !!!
I am not Dr. Berger. If it were up to me, none of these idiots would get reversals. If they can’t be bothered to think through decisions like permanent sterilization, then they aren’t responsible enough to be trusted with children anyway. Think through your actions, bitches! Worst of all, these thoughtless idiots make obtaining sterilization harder to obtain for people who actually are responsible enough to think their actions through very carefully. So thanks a fucking lot, assholes. As for infertility, get the fuck over it. It is not a tragedy, or anything anyone “suffers” from. No one needs children, especially not in an overpopulated world. If infertility is someone’s biggest complaint, I’d like to congratulate them on having no real problems in life. If you really want kids, adopt.
What A Beautiful Day!
“I know it’s absolutely true, because the Bible is always absolutely true.”
-Harold Camping
Happy October 22, 2011 everybody!
It’s just past midnight where I live, meaning that it’s officially October 22nd. I don’t know about the weather where you live, but the forecast where I live predicts that the weather today will be just dandy! I’m expecting it to be warm and sunny. It would be a great day for a cook-out if I hadn’t already had one three days in a row now and run myself out of steaks and hamburgers. I wasn’t supposed to need them today, you see. Oh well, my dog will enjoy a few games of fetch in nice grass. Sadly, apart from throwing around a drool-soaked tennis ball, I have no plans for this beautiful day.
You see, the world was supposed to end yesterday, according to Harold Camping. Has no one told you? Evidently, no one told the world as it’s still a spinnin, with all her people still on it and none of them seeming to be raptured. I made a note of of my non-destruction to my Christian boyfriend as we enjoyed our charcoal-grilled steak on our patio. I was reminded of the time that he, despite being a Christian, didn’t fly off into the sky one particular spring afternoon as we were hiking in Colorado’s beautiful mountains.
Harold Camping couldn’t have been wrong, could he? I mean, never-mind that he was wrong when he predicted the end of the world in 1994. And he was wrong again when he predicted the rapture back in May. After saying how “flabbergasted” he was, he excused the non-event by saying it was a spiritual judgement day, or whatever. There still weren’t the massive earthquakes he predicted, or were they supposed to be spiritual earthquakes?
But he was so sure that this was it! The bible told him so! Harold, as were what remained of his congregation, all 25 of them, was certain that the rapture and the end of the world would occur on October 21, 2011. Well, not too certain. Camping still wasn’t about to sell/give away his stuff, you know, like Jesus might have. And as the date loomed, Camping backed away from the strong words he’d used previously. Gone were words like “absolutely” and “without any question,” replaced by ”probably” and “maybe.”
Look out your window. Does the world look like it’s ended to you? No? I didn’t think so. What did we tell you, Camping?
Camping can’t use the cop-out of saying it was only a spiritual even this time. Not after saying this to the press.
Kind of painted yourself into a corner there, didn’t you?
Now consider something, Family Radio spent an estimated $100 million in ad money promoting this prediction. Imagine if, instead of trying to “save” people, they actually tried to save people – like, oh, I don’t know, feeding the starving people all over the world? With that kind of cash, maybe they could have helped fund research into curing disease? Maybe they could have helped people in remote locations access clean water? Maybe they could have started a homeless shelter? They could have done a lot of actual good with that kind of money. But they didn’t. Christ, were he real, would be ashamed.
You KNOW he’s not going to refund his sheep the donations that they faithfully sent him. That’s OK. Camping is 90 now. He’s not likely to need his retirement fund restocked a third time. Truthfully, anyone dumb enough to fall for this crap deserves to be removed from their money anyway so I don’t even pity them. Clever scam you pulled there, crazy old man.
For your dose of WTF, enjoy this:
I MIGHT Be A Bit Of A Whore
I’ve said on more than one occasion that if I were to donate my eggs, I would only do so if I could be certain they would be used for medical research. I definitely DON’T want any of my eggs going to help some narcissistic infertile couple have their special mini-me without having to even consider doing anything useful, like adopting a kid who already exists. That’s what I’ve said.
Then the other day I found myself bored and Googling tubal ligation failures. I found a message board for women who have experience just that very thing, all of which seemed to keep their pregnancies anyway. I certainly wouldn’t. Anyway, I kept searching Google for topics related to tubal ligation.
I found out that one can still donate eggs after a tubal. Huh, that’s interesting, I thought. Unfortunately, all of such places for that in my area that I could find were for fertility treatment. Bleh. As if the planet needs more people.
Despite my principles, I stuck around and discovered that there was about a $5-6K compensation for donating eggs. I reluctantly started filling out application forms. Sure, it totally flew in the face of my principles, but, well, it was a lot of money. I reasoned that me not donating would not stop people from getting donor eggs anyway, and it wasn’t like I was using mine so I may as well get something for them. Yes, that’s how I justified this to myself.
It wasn’t the first time that I volunteered to be part of something I opposed. I joined the Army knowing full well that I would serve under the worst president our country as ever had, and in the senseless war he started in Iraq. I knew this, but I joined and served anyway. The allure of a job, and benefits. Sure, I believe I did positive work while in, and I wouldn’t have met my wonderful BF had I not joined. But I still compromised my beliefs for the reward. I’m not sure what that says about me.
This time, I was spared the compromise. I was notified that I was too short to be considered to continue through the egg donation application process. I don’t honestly know if I would have gone through with it anyway. I’ve never been so relieved to be rejected.
I’m hoping that I can find an agency that accepts eggs for medical research purposes only. I’d be all over that in a heartbeat.
Why Are Pro-Choice People So Angry?
A little fun with Dan’s Awesome Rage Maker. I really should get a new tablet. Cross-posted on my other blog.
