Make Your Own Luck

“For sale: Lucky socks. I wore these during my IVF and got pregnant with twins! You can wear these, too, for only $49.99.”
Nope, not a joke – this was a real posting on e-bay recently. Apparently the owner, who was willing to send pictures of her real live actual twins, was also willing to part with the socks she wore when she got pregnant. Diapers times two can get pricey, I suppose. You too, could get the fertility mojo for a not-so-tiny price. The most interesting part? The socks sold within days.

Art and Science
If only fertility were up to luck and wishes. As much as fertility treatment is advanced medical science, with the latest in pharmacological wonders and technological breakthroughs, it's also an art. I think of the alchemy of finding just the right mix of just the right medications to generate just the right response, and the embryologists using intuition in choosing just the right egg and just the right sperm cell and mixing them together in a petri dish in a temperature-controlled chamber. Art and science and knowledge and guesswork and evidence all mixed together with some hopes and prayers.

Do they Work?
Online stores are chock full of good luck charms – fertility bracelets and earrings and necklaces – ranging from just a few dollars to literally hundreds of dollars. I am not opposed to special objects – I have a rock I've carried in my purse for several months that was given to me by a dear friend.

Make Your Own Mojo
My gentle advice is that I wouldn't buy a fertility charm. Maybe you find a round, smooth rock that reminds you of peacefulness or you find an acorn on your walk – acorns are ancient fertility symbols. Or maybe you carry a poem or prayer in your heart that symbolizes your deepest wish.

Just don't buy those lucky socks, ok?