Thunderbirds are go

These are the drugs I've been having for the past couple of weeks in preparation for IVF - snorting the synarel, at the back, twice a day, to suppress ovulation, and plunging that needle into my bruise-spotted belly every morning, to make me produce lots of eggs.

Tomorrow morning I'm going in to have an 'egg harvest', which sounds very appropriate to the Easter season. Like a good easter bilby, I have five eggs cunningly hidden about my person (some will turn out to be dodgy). Tomorrow is a full moon which apparently is a brilliant time to conceive.

I think I am getting to the end of the babymaking period of my life. Not just biologically - I'm also tired of having my life revolve around it. Moving to Brisbane has moved LG & I into another phase mentally as well - it's so easy to see that life has myriad fascinating options if we don't procreate. Lovergirl wants to do her clinical doctorate, and there's my whole filmmaking career waiting, and we love our funky but family-unfriendly flat in the inner city.

Originally I was going to do four IVFs over the next two years, but I don't know if I'll do another one. I'm sure all these drugs aren't good for me, and maybe (beware Byron hippy talk coming up) I'm not getting pregnant For A Reason - like the child would grow up to be the next leader of the Taliban or something.


Now I took these photos especially for you while I was in at the clinic this morning. This is a huge vat of, as it says, 'USA sperm'. You can see Lovergirl's feet in the top photo, which may give you a sense of scale. It's because of our national sperm shortage. It's just like during the Second World War when American soldiers were impregnating impressionable colonial girls all over the place, although we haven't bothered with importing the soldiers this time, just the sperm.

How did it get here? In the cargo hold of a plane? Or would it come by ship? In my imagination the jar is just filled to the brim with sperm slopping around, and maybe the doctor just dips in a syringe and draws up a squirtful. Of course it will be more organised than that, with little labelled test tubes and whatnot.