Fertility Medications & What Taylor Swift Era They Would Be
Happy Birthday to my fellow 1989 baby, Taylor Swift
We interrupt this week’s issue of Good Egg to celebrate the 34th birthday of Taylor Alison Swift.1 What better way than to co-opt her iconic Eras Tour poster into a guide to fertility medications? Here we go!
🦋 Debut Era: Clomid (clomiphene) is the fresh-faced starter drug for your fertility ~*journey.*~ Clomid will stimulate ovulation and might have you experiencing mood swings just like you did in 2006.2
💫 Fearless Era: Prenatal vitamins, specifically the golden and lemony Ritual vitamins, can give you that long, beautiful Fearless-era hair and help prevent neural tube defects in your unborn baby. I don’t know how it gets better than this!
🎆 Speak Now Era: Estrace (estradiol) is a little older, a little wiser, and prepping your uterine lining for implantation.
🧣 Red Era: Gonal-F (follitropin alfa) helps stimulate egg development in the ovaries. I used this in my ovarian stimulation cycle before my egg retrieval, and I weirdly miss the clicky pen type of injection. Also, the packaging is red.
🏙 1989 Era: Ovidrel/Ovitrelle (choriogonadotropin alfa) triggers ovulation and is so versatile that it’s prescribed for timed intercourse, IUI, IVF, magic, madness, heaven, sin.
🐍 reputation Era: Cetrotide (cetrorelix) is a GnRH (Gonadotropin-releasing hormone) antagonist, suppressing ovulation until your trigger shot/retrieval. It shuts down FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormone), “inducing a state of temporary menopause.” It also cost me almost $900 out of pocket, and insurance covered the other $1,200. Metal as hell.
💘 Lover Era: Whatever Cetrotide did to you, Menopur (menotropins) brings you back to your old self beautifully. This injection stimulates FSH and LH, and anecdotally makes your skin glow (at least it did for me!). You also have to mix this one with a little vial of powder and multiple needles, so it’s kind of like a chemistry set.
🌲 folklore & 🍂 evermore Eras: The supportive sisters to all injectable medications, your sharps container and alcohol swabs are a necessary departure on our list. Become a pro at swabbing and stabbing yourself with needles, and watch your sharps container fill up with the fruits of your labor like a shelf full of Grammys.
🕰️ Midnights Era: Progesterone in oil injections (PIO) comes into your life when you’re so used to injections, you’re in your 30s, and you don’t even remember who you were when you were in the Clomid phase. PIO will help build up and maintain the uterine lining before your embryo transfer, and through most of your first trimester. This inch-and-a-half needle is a monster on the hill, the oil is thick and requires heat/massage to break it up.3
I stumbled across several old and out-of-print fertility-related graphic novels and comics, one of them being Phoebe Potts’ memoir Good Eggs(!!) from 2010, which I was able to order a used copy of online. Others include Spooky Womb by Paula Knight from 2012 and Broken Eggs by Emily Steinberg from 2014. I love reading about other infertility experiences, and reading a graphic memoir is always delightful. Reminder to seek out different forms of writing, or look for used and out-of-print books! There are lots of gems out there.
Today’s bird fact features my new favorite bird, the Crested Auklet (Aethia cristatella), which Audubon describes as “a chunky seabird of Alaskan waters.”4
Crested auklets—comical seabirds that have tufted heads—roost in massive colonies that, quite delightfully, smell of tangerines.5
Literally these birds are crazy.
As always, thank you for reading! I hope you found this helpful, and if you ever have a question or need support, just reply to this email or comment below!
Tonight I’ll be forcing my family to watch The Eras Tour: Extended Edition, now streaming. 🦋💫🎆🧣🏙🐍💘🌲🍂🕰️
What do you guys think Travis is planning for her? 🥰
The brand name Clomid has been discontinued in the US, but generics are still available.
Upsetting fact: Sometimes progesterone in oil can accumulate in your muscle, causing little knots or bumps, known as panniculitis.