8 Things I Learned About Myself During My Fertility Exam
byJill Di Donato
Full disclosure: I'm all about self-improvement. As a lady who likes to thumb through Psychology Today for fun, I'm all about learning about the mind and how I can continually improve mine. I didn't, however, expect to get to know myself by undergoing a trans-vaginal ultrasound probing around my insides. You'd be surprised by the number of things I learned about myself from a fertility exam.
I'm not saying that every grown-ass woman needs to see what her uterus looks like in order to gain some type of self-awareness. I mean, it's not the most comfortable procedure you can endure, and talking to a relative stranger, my OB-GYN, about how frequently I have unprotected sex, in what positions, and what STDs I might have been exposed to, isn't exactly my idea of a good time. Don't even get me started on the question of whether or not I wanted to have genetic testing.
Suffice to say, a fertility exam is more stress-inducing than a yoga retreat, but, surprisingly, both can have similar outcomes. The anticipation of the exam made me sick, so a couple days before I sabotaged myself by getting drunk (something you're really not supposed to do while trying to conceive). Honestly, I was terrified that I'd exit the fertility office with alarming news and my ability to be a single mom by choice, would end before it even really began. Thankfully, that was not the case. In fact, after sitting on the results for a couple days, I felt empowered and enlightened, having learned the following things about myself: