Laurie let out a short mocking laugh while she removed her feet from the stirrups, swung her legs over the side of the exam table, and sat up. She was clutching the sheet around her midsection.

“You have to stay positive,” Dr. Schoener went on. “Are you having some hormonal symptoms?”

Laurie repeated her sham laugh with a touch more forceful-ness. She also rolled her eyes. “When I started all this, I promised myself I wouldn’t let it get to me. Was I wrong! You should have heard me yesterday bawl out an octogenarian who tried to cut in front of me at the checkout line at Whole Foods. As the saying goes, it would have made a sailor blush.”

“How about headaches?”

“Those, too.”

“Hot flashes?”

“The whole shebang. And what bothers me the most is Jack. He acts like he’s not even part of this. Every time I get my period and feel crushed that I’m not pregnant, he just blithely says, ‘Well, maybe next month,’ and goes about his business. I feel like hitting him over the head with a frying pan.”

“He does want children, doesn’t he?” Dr. Schoener asked.

“Well, to be truthful, he’s probably going through this mostly on my behalf, although once we have them, if we have them, he’ll be the world’s greatest dad. I’m convinced. Jack’s problem in this regard is that he had two lovely daughters with his late wife, but the wife and the kids were all tragically killed in a commuter plane crash. He suffered so he’s afraid of making himself vulnerable again. It was even hard to get him to commit to marriage.”

“I didn’t know,” Dr. Schoener said, with true sympathy.

“Very few people know. Jack’s not forthcoming with his personal emotional issues.”

“There’s nothing strange about that,” Dr. Schoener said, as she snatched up the paper debris from the ultrasound test and stuffed it into the wastebasket. “Unless the male is demonstrably the source of the infertility, which he then takes very seriously, he deals with infertility and its treatment very differently than a woman.”

“I know, I know,” Laurie said insistently. She stood up, still keeping the sheet wrapped around her. “I know it, but it still bugs me that he doesn’t act more committed and understanding of what I’m going through. All this ain’t easy by any stretch of the imagination, especially with the threat of hyperstimulation hanging over my head. The trouble is as a doctor I know what to be afraid of.”

“Luckily, there doesn’t seem to be any threat of hyperstimulation in this cycle or those in the past, so I want you to continue with the same dosage with your injections. If your hormone level is too high in the blood sample we drew today, I’ll call and make the necessary adjustments. Otherwise, stay the course. You’re doing terrific. I feel good about this cycle.”

“That’s what you said last month.”

“I did say that because I did feel good last month, but I feel better this month with that left ovary of yours getting more into the act.”