I’ve been trying to work out whether I want kids or not for years.

Eventually I hit 35 and thought “Shit, s’alllll downhill from here with me wee eggies”

With that unexpectedly Scottish thought in mind, I put my head in the sand a bit longer.

I’ve written about my “should I have a kid” decision here, and here and here and now here and soon over there (somewhere).

Last week I began to tell you the tale of how I came to end up with 12 babies in the freezer.

But then it got far too long, much like that one hair on my arm that always grows 3x the length of her neighbours.

And so here we are, on part 2 of a 3 part post about kids, babies, IVF babies, and frozen babies.

To recap, by the end of last week’s post, I’d discovered two new things:

• A subtle bias towards wanting to be convinced that having kids is a good idea

• A random premonition of impending motherhood

With these two new pieces of information filed into my bulging “Do-I-Want-Kids-Or-Not” folder, I tucked it under my arm and headed off for coffee with a new friend, Brandy…

Brandy is not Brandy’s actual name. Though I do rather wish I had a friend called Brandy. Any Brandy’s out there in the market for a new friend? Please inquire within.

Somehow I found myself telling not-Brandy Brandy about my internal “do I want kids” debate, and suggested very off-handedly that maybe I might freeze my eggs at some point, potentially.

“Do it.” she said, with the conviction of a 50 year old white male.

“Best thing I’ve ever done.” She continued. “I froze my eggs at 36. I’m nearly 40 now and as my new partner already has more than enough kids for us to look after, I don’t even think I want my own children now, but I’m still so glad I did it because it took all the pressure off! It was SUCH a relief after years of overthinking it.”

This “relief” she spoke of appealed to me very much indeed.

I hadn’t thought too seriously about egg-freezing up until that point.

“Maybe later” was my attitude. I figured if I left it too long and ended up unable to have kids, then at least the decision would have been made for me.

What will be will be, etc, etc.

Brandy suggested I book in for an initial consult with a fertility doctor to at least get a few fertility tests done, and then make a decision from there.

So, Bloody Good Bloke and I booked in for an initial consult at Number 1 Fertility in Melbourne (which I can now highly recommend).

They sent us out a bunch of referrals for blood tests, sperm tests, and ultrasound scans to have done before the consult.

By the time we got to our appointment,

I’d given away half my blood, been poked and prodded with an ultrasound stick thingo,

and was prepared for bad news.

I’d been unwell with a myriad of health issues relating to long-covid for almost 2 years by this point,

so I figured my fertility would be in the bin along with the rest of my health.

But to our surprise, my fertility results came back in the normal range for my age.

A few months later, I was busy injecting myself in the stomach with Ovaleap when I suddenly thought to myself…

“Well.. that escalated quickly!”

So, here we are with a bunch of 6 day old mini Andrea + Bloody Good Blokes

safely stowed in a freezer somewhere in Melbourne.

This “part 2” post was getting far too lengthy too, so now there’s a part 3 as well.

Part 3 is about my experience going through the crazy feat-of-science IVF process itself + what we did to improve our fertility in the lead up.

Many of you have emailed me saying you feel there’s still a lot of stigma around IVF and egg freezing and that it’s not talked about openly enough…

So you know me… I’mma give you all the details.

Part 3 of the IVF extravaganza will be winging its way to you via courier pigeon next week.

Same place, different time.

**Update you can now read part 3 here.