Beards Fight Infertility?

I'm toying with the idea of shaving. Since 1990 or so I've spent more time with facial hair of some sort than not, and for the past 18 months or so, I've sported a full beard. This morning I was looking in the mirror thinking that while mustaches alone look a little silly to me, the Amish beard sans mustache is kind of appealing. I did wear just a goatee for a while, but it gradually gave way to a van dyke, and I can't remember ever doing an Amish beard, so it's something I'm playing with in my mind.

Actually, I grew the full beard as part of the fertility thing. For those who haven't gone through visiting a reproductive endocrinologist (RE) and/or a fertility clinic, the first step is a lot of tests. Men have to give a vial or two of blood for basic tests for STDs and other issue and maybe an additional vial for DNA karyotyping; they also may have to have a semen analysis done. But these are usually one-time tests. Women seem to have to give more blood for additional tests, and they have to give them more often, as well as go through regular ultrasounds and other examinations. Plus the meds (if a medicated cycle is being pursued) go into her, not him. As silly as it may sound, I figured that if nothing else, I could grow a bigger beard to help the effort.

Okay, now that you've stopped laughing (or should I wait a bit longer?) ...

Okay, now, I know it sounds stupid and really won't make a difference in all this, but growing a beard did make me at least feel like I was doing something to help the process along. So far it hasn't proved effective, but fingers remain crossed and I probably won't adjust the facial hair until we have a positive that sticks.

Last night, I took a look at the test Evelin took in the morning. There's a really, really, really faint line that can be seen under proper lighting conditions. Positive? Evaporation line? Fluke? We're not sure. I bought a First Response home pregnancy test (HPT) on the way home last night, but Evelin decided (at my urging) to wait until Wednesday morning to test again. Fingers crossed.