The Heartbreaking Paradox of IVF
Spring 2024
In our five year struggle with infertility, the first suggestion from friends and coworkers was always, “why don’t you try IVF?”. These were well-meaning people, who understood the natural yearning for a child that a happy couple has. As a nurse working in the ER, my coworkers were especially perplexed as to why I hadn’t yet tried this medically advanced “solution”. In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) seems, on the surface, to be the logical solution for this heart wrenching problem of infertility. But while this procedure might result in a healthy pregnancy, it isn’t, in fact, solving any fertility problems. Moreover, in the process of trying to become a mother or father via IVF, couples become participants in an act horrifying to the very nature of a parent.
In the heart of most happy, God-loving couples, is a deep desire to multiply this love with children. When pregnancy doesn’t occur naturally, these couples turn to their doctors for advice and direction. Unfortunately, most doctors do little testing to discover the reasons for the infertility, and even less to heal the root of the fertility problems. More often than not, the couples are simply directed to the IVF experts.
There are many issues with IVF “treatment”, but the biggest problem is that the vast majority of the babies (in their embryonic stage of life) created in the petri dish, are disposed of. Making that couple’s very first act of parenthood, oftentimes unbeknownst to them, a tragic one. And while it claims to be a treatment for infertility, IVF doesn’t treat infertility at all. IVF doctors don’t address any of the underlying issues of infertility, but rather just force the body into pregnancy, leaving the woman feeling more like a lab instrument, than a whole, healthy, woman. There is, thankfully, an option that treats the woman as a whole person, and views children as a gift from God, not a commodity to be demanded.
NaPro Technology offers infertility treatment that actually treats the underlying problems that result in infertility. NaPro doctors begin with detailed cycle-tracking, along with extensive testing, to uncover the diagnoses that have led to infertility. Next, they create a treatment plan for each of the diagnoses that have been identified.
NaPro doctors treat women as whole, precious, humans, and work with them to resolve the issues that are causing infertility. This approach leaves women with an optimistic future for their overall health and fertility throughout their lives, instead of the Band-Aid approach that IVF has, which just addresses one pregnancy, and doesn’t resolve any of the medical issues the woman has.
While the first five years of our marriage brought all of the heartache that infertility brings, our next five years of marriage, after my NaPro treatment with my amazing NaPro doctor, brought four beautiful children, with the fifth one currently on the way. While IVF “treatment” seems to be a logical, procreative, and loving decision, the heartbreaking paradox is, that in the desperate search for parenthood, IVF destroys more lives than it lets live, and isn’t, in fact, a treatment for infertility at all.
About The Author
Alison Zinkewich
Ali Zinkewich attended Christendom College where she earned her BA in Theology, after which she got her nursing degree and worked for many years in emergency medicine. She is a Registered Nurse turned stay-at-home mom and teacher to her five children, ages six to in-utero.
