Coming face to face with the reality that there is some form of delay is hard. It’s even harder when you find yourself lost among acronyms and abbreviations you know nothing about. It seems that over the past 8 or so years, the majority of us tend to turn to our famous friend ‘Google’ to search for almost everything – it’s crazy! Sometimes I think about how life was when I was a teenager – you had to actively research (books) topics for information. There were no shortcuts like Google! So, when I started “researching” fertility topics, I was confused.com. On every forum I visited, there were abbreviations for everything. I mean, they may as well have been speaking a different language.

I have to admit that I did find myself on the internet quite a bit as I was not only looking up information on PCOS, IVF, Unexplained infertility and so on, I was also looking for the meanings of those mostly 3 lettered abbreviations. It took me back to my secondary school days when I was struggling with Algebra… I didn’t (still don’t) understand why the equations can’t just be in numbers. Why add the letters have to complicate things even more? I guess you’ve probably realised that Maths was not my favourite subject.

I’ve noted some of the abbreviations/acronyms and their meanings that I regularly came across and kept my own little dictionary. I searched everywhere for a cure, an abbreviation, a solution to the term ‘unexplained infertility’… There wasn’t and still isn’t one. What I learned was that 2-3 letters would not be the answer to my challenge  – it could help me decode postings in forums but ultimately, I learned how important my faith was to me.

So, before you read on, here is a great acronym I learned some years back that really helped me along the way – some of you may already know it

F – False

E – Evidence

A – Appearing

R– Real

Fertility Abbreviations/acronyms 

TTC – Trying to conceive

AF– Aunt flow (menstrual cycle)

2ww – 2 week wait (after embryo transfer)

BBT – Basal Body Temperature

BD – Baby dance (intercourse)

BFP –   Big Fat Positive (pregnancy test)

BFN – Big Fat No

DH – Dear Husband

CD– Cycle Day

LP – Luteal Phase

LAP – Laparoscopy

HPT – Home Pregnancy Test

FET – Frozen Embryo Transfer

ER – Egg Retrieval

ET – Embryo Transfer

FSH – Follicle-Stimulating Hormone

CD – Cycle Day

MC – Miscarriage

DPO – Days Past Ovulation

DPR – Days Post Retrieval

DPT – Days Post Transfer

EDD – Estimated Due Date

OV – Ovulation

And on that note…

BEBE

B– Be

E – Encouraged

B – Be

E – Expectant