**** VISITORS: PLEASE READ FIRST BEFORE POSTING *****

GoldenKeys

Welcome to the Infertility Board

Welcome! The Infertility board members would just like to say: we're sorry you have to be here, but we’re really glad that you found us.  No one wants to have trouble getting pregnant. However, now that you are here, there are a few things that are commonly asked.  Reading this post will answer a lot of your questions. If after reading this you still have questions, by all means please ask. We are all at different stages in our journey, and will do our best to help you. Good luck moving forward on your own journey!

Who belongs on this board?

For our purposes, infertility means trying to conceive for more than a year, (or six months if you're over 35), or already having a documented infertility issue like anovulation or MFI.

There are several boards on The Bump that deal with the topic of infertility.   On this board, most of us are working with a reproductive endocrinologist  in some form of medical treatment process (mainly IVF, IUI, etc).  Other boards like Trying to Get Pregnant are better suited toward homeopathic treatments (herbs, dietary changes, etc).  

You might want to reconsider joining us if your idea of "infertility" is not getting pregnant after only 3 or 4 months of trying. We all remember being there, and yes, we know that it is incredibly frustrating to get that BFN month after month. But please keep in mind, it can take a normal, healthy couple up to a year to conceive.  That being said, many of us had our initial testing done before the year mark. Just know that if it comes back normal, you still have a chance that things will work on their own!

Here are a few etiquette pointers we'd like to share

New visitor?  If you are new to our board, welcome!  Please introduce yourself so we can get to know you and support you in your journey. In your initial posting, we'd appreciate it if you could give a warning in your subject line if you will be mentioning another child(ren) or a loss(es) in your post. These are sensitive topics for some of us who are struggling, and a little warning goes a long way.  Some examples of warnings look like this:

“Introducing myself (loss mentioned)”   or “New girl in town! (child mentioned)”

Please be sure to post your intro message on your own new discussion and not at the bottom of this post. To do so, simply click the "new discussion" button located at the top next to this post's title.

Please do not ask for pregnancy success stories here.  We are all in various stages of trying to get pregnant... so if you are looking for pregnancy success stories, boards like Success after Infertility are better places to look for them.

We do not know if you are pregnant.   Only a home pregnancy test or a blood test from your doctor can tell you that.   We beg of you -- please do not list your pregnancy symptoms and then ask us if we think that you are pregnant.   Take a home pregnancy test, read the instructions well... and then believe the results.   If your test is negative but you still feel symptoms, do not reach back into the trash to read it again, hours later.   Wait until the next day, take a new, fresh test, and try again.  Likewise, this isn't a good place to ask someone to interpret your home pregnancy test, so posting pics etc of HPT isn't a good idea. 

Don't post drive by pregnancy announcements - Let's face it nobody likes a drive by BFP. If you've never (or even only a few times) posted on our board, we politely ask that you do not come here to simply post your success story in getting pregnant.  Those announcements are happily reserved for our board members who we've supported and cheered on since they made their introduction on this board. If you’d like to join a board we would suggest making your introduction on the board Pregnant after Infertility.

Established Member Postings about a BFP and/or Loss– These types of posts should generally come with a "BFP mentioned"  or "Loss mentioned" trigger warning.  For graduated members, we'd love to hear about your progress in the Grad Checkin thread.  

Give Support to Receive Support  -  This is a real community.  We completely understand that you have a burning question and we love to help newbies!  But please don't simply participate exclusively in your own threads  or lurk when others are hurting or need advice.  Even if you don't have an answer to someone's question, you can still offer encouragement and emotional support.  For example "I have no advice, but I get how frustrating infertility can be. Hopefully your doctor can give better answers." etc.  Basically, don't be self centered....  try to develop an interest in other people's infertility journey.  You'll be surprised at how good being an active, caring member will make you feel.   We're all in this together!

Acronyms

Everyone soon realizes that we speak in our own language, using acronyms. This can be confusing; however, here are a few common ones for those new to the board...

2WW - Two Week Wait
AF - Aunt Flo (menstruation)
AMA - Advanced Maternal Age
BD - Big Deed (baby making sex), also Baby Dance
BCPS - Birth Control Pills
BETA - another term for HCG, blood pregnancy testing
BF or BF’ing - Breastfeeding
BFN - Big Fat Negative (pregnancy test result)
BFP - Big Fat Positive (pregnancy test result)
CD - Cycle Day
CM - Cervical Mucus
D&C - Dilation and Curettage
DD - Dear/Darling Daughter
DE - Donor Eggs or Donor Embryos
DH - Dear/Darling Husband
DOR – Diminished Ovarian Reserve
DPO - Days Past Ovulation
Drive by - When a stranger comes to the board just to announce that they're pregnant.
DS - Dear/Darling Son
DW - Dear/Darling Wife
EWCM - Egg White Cervical Mucus
HCG - Hormone Detected by Pregnancy Tests. Human Chorionic Gonadotropin.
HPT - Home Pregnancy Test
IRL - In Real Life
IUI - Intra-Uterine Insemination
IVF - In Vitro Fertilization
FET - Frozen Embryo Transfer
FMU - First Morning Urine
FRER - First Response Early Response
FX - Fingers Crossed
GL - Good Luck
IF - Infertility
LMP - Last Menstrual Period
LO - Little One
MC - Miscarriage
NTNP - Not Trying, Not Preventing
O - Ovulation
OPK - Ovulation Predictor Kit
PG - Pregnant, or pregnancy
POAS - Pee on a Stick (taking a home pregnancy test)
PP - Previous Poster
PUPO - Pregnant Until Proven Otherwise (meaning IVF two week wait)
RE - Reproductive Endocrinologist
RPL - Recurrent Pregnancy Loss
SO - Significant Other
T&Ps - Thoughts and Prayers
TTC - Trying To Conceive
US or U/S - Ultrasound