While we were waiting for the adoption agency to match us with an expecting mother, we moved to a different state. We had already been waiting to adopt for 7 months, so my husband suggested that we get a second opinion on my infertility.
I struggled with whether it was ethical to pursue fertility treatments while waiting to adopt. My friends assured me that it was not a requirement to refrain for sexual intercourse while waiting to adopt, so it was okay if I got pregnant while waiting. I also figured that I could still go through with the adoption and raise two children who were close together in age.
My in-laws referred me to Dr. F, a fertility specialist with a proven track record. When he examined my file, his first question was why I had never had a laparoscopy. I had never even heard of this procedure, so I had no answers for him.
Dr. F. recommended that I undergo a laparoscopy before doing any intrauterine inseminations (IUIs) to rule out endometriosis as well as other possible factors that might not be apparent until he got a look at my reproductive organs. I told him that I did not have endometriosis because I did not experience painful periods. He told me that it was possible to have a significant amount of endometriosis without any pain, so he was not ruling out the possibility until after the procedure.
The procedure was an outpatient one. I had to take laxatives the night before to clean out my intestines and then fast until after the surgery. The surgery involved making an incision in my belly button and inserting an instrument with a small camera through the incision to view my reproductive organs. The doctor pumped my body full of some sort of gas to get a better view.
Recovering from the surgery involved lots of “tooting” to remove the gas from my body. Dr. F advised me to walk around as much as I could handle to expedite the process of expelling the gas. Otherwise, it was possible for the gas to travel to strange places in my body, such as my shoulder, and cause cramping and pain. Strange, huh?
I had never been a patient in a hospital before, much less had any sort of surgery, so I was nervous. I reacted well to the anesthesia, thank goodness. The incision in my belly button hurt for about a week. I had the surgery on a Friday and then rested for the weekend. I had to wear loose-fitting pants for the next week as my body healed.
Overall, the procedure was not that bad. However, it was surgery, and no surgery is fun.
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