Jumping to Conclusions

Overheard at work: "My beta is in 9 days, I'm so excited!"

Hmmm.

The coworker who said this isn't someone I know particularly well, and to my knowledge she hasn't pursued any Assisted Reproductive Technologies. But she does have one young child and has been very vocal about wanting a sibling, so I've been half-expecting a pregnancy announcement from her for a while now. Still, it threw me for a loop that she used the word "beta" and my head went right past all the other, more logical explanations, to "OMG she just went through IVF and we are IVF twins and I am going to run into her at the doctor's office and she is going to want to talk to me about everything and I wonder if I should wear a disguise from now on and could I pull off blonde hair?"

It's entirely possible, of course, that I misheard her. "My data is in 9 days! My Zeta is in 9 days! My gaydar is in 9 days!" Or she's using the word beta to refer to software development, or even that she just got a positive pregnancy test at home and her doctor wants her to go in for a regular ol' blood test in 9 days. This last scenario is actually the most likely, given her past statements about wanting to have another child. And if it turns out to be the case, then good for her - really. She's a nice person and if she wants to have two children under 2 years old, then bless her.

Still - argh. I have made a deliberate choice not to tell my coworkers that I'm undergoing IVF and I'm not sure if I will fess up if I do get pregnant. On the one hand, there is nothing shameful about being infertile; on the other hand, I wouldn't tell this group of people about my child's conception if the story involved an extra drink on a vacation, so why would I bring them into the loop regarding my unique bio-adhesive progesterone gel application?