So I'm chatting with a co-worker the other day, and she's adorably preggers, and we're talking about Octomom, and I utter the familiar refrain: "Why did IVF doctors even implant eight eggs in that woman in the first place?!"
"Actually," she tells me, "I went through in vitro fertilization treatments to conceive my child, and the doctors always implant twice the number of eggs to ensure the woman gets pregnant. I only wanted one child, but I could have ended up with twins!"
Apparently, she goes on to tell me, if the woman is older or her uterus is otherwise inhospitable to pregnancy, this 2:1 ratio can get even higher. So, a woman trying to have one child could be implanted with three or even four eggs to try to increase her chances.
Furthermore, she continued, because IVF is expensive, and because usually only a certain number of IVF treatments are covered by a woman's insurance, sometimes women choose to be implanted with, say, six eggs, in hopes of having all three of their desired children with one pregnancy. So, it's not all about having as many babies as possible and getting welfare and your own talk show and musical and having people write about how you look just like Angelina Jolie you smug, insensitive, fertile 26-year-old...she said, to, um, paraphrase.
Thus, I was schooled. THE END.
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