It wasn't IVF, people.

So, a woman gave birth to octuplets yesterday.

The Associated Press released an article about it, an article many news outlets have run.

With one exception...most conveniently decided to leave out this part:

For people who use fertility drugs, the vast majority of births — 80 percent — are single babies. Among multiple births, the most common are twins, Paulson said.

Paulson said the latest births likely resulted from the use of fertility drugs and not in vitro fertilization.

"When you hear about someone having octuplets, it's almost always the case that they took fertility medications and not IVF," he said.

It's easier to control the number of births through in vitro fertilization, which involves combining egg and sperm in a lab dish and transferring the embryo into the uterus. Fertility drugs induce or enhance ovulation and couples often opt for selective reduction, in which women carrying multiple fetuses reduce the number of viable fetuses to two.

Instead, most articles simply said, "the hospital is not disclosing whether or not the woman used fertility drugs."

Great, so the lack of information leads to the inevitable comments about how people shouldn't do IVF, how old women (you know, over 40) shouldn't try and get pregnant, how it's God's will for someone to be infertile...and even though I should be used to the ignorance surrounding fertility treatments, it still pisses me off.

I have a low - scratch that - no tolerance for stupidity and ignorance.

Let me just say, once and for all:

1) High order multiples are not from In-Vitro fertilization. There have been a few cases where two embryos split into identical twins, resulting in quadruplets, but it is extremely rare.

2) HOM (high order multiples) are most often - and by most often I mean almost always-a result of using injectible fertility medications in conjunction with IUI or even just having sex.

3) Those of us that have been through fertility treatments know HOM can be avoided, and should be avoided. The issue should not be whether or not this woman should have pursued treatment, the issue should be why the doctor didn't cancel the cycle.

4) Women over 40 are not the only ones pursuing fertility treatments. Getting older is not the only reason women can't have kids. I would have been just as infertile at 20 as I was at 32.

4) As far as God's Will, well...I guess it's a good thing I'm an atheist, huh?

While I hope the best for these eight babies, I can't help but cringe each time something like this makes the news. It just opens the wounds that frankly, never go away.