after talked about her family’s fertility struggles On the campaign trail, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz is facing criticism from his opponent for not accurately identifying the treatment of his wife, Gwen.
Republican Vice Presidential Candidate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio charged Walz on Tuesday she lies to her children about being conceived through in vitro fertilization. Vance seemed to be answering An article in Glamor magazineGwen Walz said she underwent a fertility treatment called intrauterine insemination.
“Lying is a very strange thing, isn’t it? There is nothing wrong with having a baby through IVF or not having a baby with IVF. For example, why do you lie? I just don’t get it,” Vance told reporters in Milwaukee.
“Anyone who has had friends or themselves receive fertility treatment, you know the difference,” she says.
Both IVF and IUI are forms of assisted reproductive technology. IVF involves taking eggs from the ovaries and fertilizing them with sperm in the laboratory, then transferring one or more embryos into the uterus. IUI involves placing sperm directly into the uterus. Either way, the doctor inserts a small, flexible tube into the vagina to place the sperm or embryo into the uterus.
Some staunch abortion opponents oppose the practice of discarding embryos as a common part of the IVF process. Like most Republicans, Vance voted against Democratic legislation to protect IVF.
Tim Walz has never directly said that he and his wife’s children were conceived through IVF, but some of his past statements suggest that this was the case.
After February The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that embryos created through IVF are considered children (implying that people could theoretically be sued to destroy them), Walz He wrote on Facebook he and his wife “have two beautiful children thanks to reproductive health care like IVF.”
And last month he He said on the Pod Save America podcast that if it were up to Vance, “I wouldn’t have a family because of IVF and the reproductive things we have to do. My children were born directly this way – you know, this way.
Harris-Walz campaign spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement Tuesday that Walz “used commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatment” in her earlier comments.
“The Trump campaign’s attacks on Ms. Walz are yet another example of how callous and out of touch Donald Trump and JD Vance are when it comes to women’s health,” Ehrenberg said.
Several fertility doctors said it’s common to confuse IUI and IVF.
CCRM Fertility New York co-founder Dr. “When someone thinks they’re doing fertility treatment, they automatically think they’re doing IVF,” Brian Levine said.
In fact, he added, “there are cure rates, and IUI is one of the tools in my toolbox.”
Dr., an infertility specialist at the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago and a member of WINFertility’s advisory board. “Most, but not all, of my patients know the difference between IUI and IVF,” said Eli Reshef.
There may be overlap between the two processes. Gwen Walz, for example, said in a statement Tuesday that her treatment consisted of injections typically used by IVF patients.
“The only person who knew the details of what we were going through was our next door neighbor. She was a nurse and helped me with the shots I needed as part of the IUI process,” she said. “I would rush home from school and she would give me shots to keep us on track.”
In most cases, patients undergoing IUI take pills to stimulate egg production, but a minority use injectable hormones. In this sense, most IVF-related medications have played a role in some couples’ success with IUI.
Reproductive endocrinology partner at Illume Fertility in Connecticut, Dr. Shaun Williams, injections may be used in the IUI process for several reasons.
“If we haven’t been successful in getting two or three eggs a month, we’ll sometimes switch to stronger drugs to increase the likelihood of success,” Williams said.
He added that some people also opt for injections because they are “limited in the number of attempts they can make either by insurance coverage restrictions or by cost.”
IUI has a lower success rate per cycle than IVF, but is less expensive and invasive. People undergoing IVF must inject themselves every day for a week or two and have frequent ultrasounds and blood draws. The egg retrieval procedure requires anesthesia and involves inserting a needle into the ovaries to remove the eggs.
Many fertility experts suggest trying IUI first. Some patients are also not candidates for IVF.
“I tell my patients, ‘Let’s do three IUIs.’ If that’s not successful, let’s talk about its more attractive and expensive cousin: in vitro,” said Reshef.
Both IVF and IUI are often very stressful and emotional for couples hoping to conceive.
“When my wife and I decided to have children, we spent years in infertility treatments,” Walz said at a rally in Philadelphia this month. “And I remember praying every night for a call with good news, the pit in my stomach when the phone rang, and the agony when we heard the treatments weren’t working. Therefore, it was no coincidence that when we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Umid.”