16. A Journalist and Her Ovary
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Author
_147498688_
For all the people with ovaries
confronting uncertainty and the
consequential questions
I used to think, as a young woman, that life was something I was controlling and directing. Now I only think: What a mess we all are, with so many contradictory impulses, so many things about ourselves we’ll never entirely understand.
—Zadie Smith, Lenny Letter interview, December 2017
We are all yeses. We are worthy enough, we passed inspection, we survived the great fetal oocyte extinctions. In that sense, at least—call it a mechanospiritual sense—we are meant to be. We are good eggs, every one of us.
—Natalie Angier, Woman: An Intimate Geography
List of Abbreviations
ACOG: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
AFC: antral follicle count
AMH: anti-Müllerian hormone
ART: assisted reproductive technology
ASRM: American Society for Reproductive Medicine
BBT: basal body temperature
BIPOC: Black, indigenous, (and) people of color
BMI: body mass index
BRCA: breast cancer gene
CAP: College of American Pathologists
CDC: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CLIA: Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments
CMS: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
D&C: dilation and curettage
DOR: diminished ovarian reserve
FAMs: fertility awareness-based methods
FDA: U.S. Food and Drug Administration
FLE: Family Life Education
FSH: follicle-stimulating hormone
hCG: human chorionic gonadotropin
HPV: human papillomavirus
ICSI: intracytoplasmic sperm injection
IM: intramuscular
IUD: intrauterine device
IUI: intrauterine insemination
IVF: in vitro fertilization
