Fertility Blogs

May 15, 2012

Science has finally unearthed the age-old question of why women go for the bad boys and think they can change them into husband and father material.

It all comes down to hormones. (Of course.)

a blog by Suzanne Rico, May 14, 2012

I remember when Mother’s Day went from being special to dreaded. I remember seeing homemade cards stuck to my friend’s refrigerators and hearing about breakfast in bed served in bed by small, earnest waiters. I remember celebrating with my mother during those dark years when becoming a mom myself seemed about as likely as winning American Idol—and thinking, “This is not how it’s supposed to be.”

a blog by Suzanne Rico, May 10, 2012

I really wanted girls. This is not a politically correct admission ('I don’t care, as long as it’s healthy' is better) but it’s true. As one of three sisters, with six aunts and two nieces, I understood women, but little boys, with their fart jokes and Star Wars games, were strange creatures I largely ignored as an adult. Still, after several failed IVFs, when it came time to decide whether to test our cache of mediocre-looking embryos to select for sex, my husband and I opted against it. We figured we were already pushing our luck with Mother Nature.

May 9, 2012

As if getting pregnant isn't hard enough, we now find out that sperm are just like men — they refuse to ask directions!

a blog by Jamie Pursley, May 8, 2012

Infertility is a balancing act.

It’s becoming an actress, putting on that smile that takes every muscle in your body to muster up when you feel like falling on the floor in despair. It’s also letting your guard down enough to experience the cleansing emotional release of feelings when you are so well trained at wearing a mask. It's keeping true to who you were before infertility and finishing what you’ve started before giving your life to this new venture on your path to parenthood. You can’t be a happy parent if you aren’t a happy you.

May 4, 2012

You just never know — a new study finds that being labeled "infertile" does not necessarily mean you will never have a baby naturally. French researchers published in the Fertility and Sterility that helps clarify those anecdotes about people having a successful or failed in vitro fertilization (IVF) and then going on to have a baby naturally.

a blog by Suzanne Rico, May 1, 2012

At the beginning of our third IVF try, feeling beaten by repeated miscarriages and the financial suck of infertility, my husband and I went to Palm Springs for the weekend. We thought perhaps that starting the parade of baby-making shots in a warm, stress-free environment would help us succeed. But that night, just imagine my surprise (and stress!) when we discovered that instead of grabbing the Gonal-F vial from the fridge on our way out the door, my sweet hubby had grabbed the dog’s ear medicine instead. Back he drove to LA, faster than a drug runner at the U.S. border, returning at 2 a.m. to first jab a needle into my butt cheek and then pass out cold. For the rest of the cycle, we laughed about it — and that felt good.

a blog by Marna Gatlin, Parents Via Egg Donation, April 30, 2012

Emily Herx, former Indiana high school teacher of literature was fired from her position at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic High School in Fort Wayne, IN, undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Herx was told her contract would not be renewed because of “improprieties related to church teachings or law.” Herx says the school's priest called her a "grave, immoral sinner" and told her she should have kept mum about her fertility treatments because some things are "better left between the individual and God," the complaint said.

a blog by Lori Shandle-Fox, April 26, 2012

If you ask any one of the 7 million people dealing with infertility what the worst part of being infertile is, they'd probably look at you like you were an imbecile, say something like:

"Not being able to get pregnant," followed by an implied: "Duh" look in case you hadn't picked up on the "imbecile" look.

I disagree. To me, the worst part of the journey is not the "I'm STILL not pregnant" part, it's the humongous question mark that looms over you from day one and grows bigger, darker and heavier with each passing menstrual cycle.

"Am I going to get pregnant next month?" "Am I going to get pregnant EVER?" "Will I ever be able to carry a baby for nine months?" "Will I ever have a SECOND child?" "Will this fertility drug work better than the last one?" "Will I need surgery?" "Will my husband stick around for all this?" "Will we go broke from the treatments?" "Will the fertility doctor come to the homeless shelter to do my next cycle?"

a blog by Infertile Naomi, April 24, 2012

Giuliana and Bill Rancic finally have some greats reasons to celebrate. After a long and public struggle with infertility and breast cancer, the television couple has announced that they are expecting their first child this summer. The couple is expecting a child through a gestational surrogate, which means that the baby will be the Rancic’s genetic child.

a blog by Jamie Pursley, April 23, 2012

Don’t ignore time.

Four months ago, I was four months pregnant, and it was taken in an instant. Don’t take any second of your life for granted — it is all with a purpose. My first and only pregnancy I will ever experience is now a precious memory that I will carry with me always, but I have learned that time presses on with or without your consent.

I wanted to stay wrapped in the week that I lost him, because it was easier to say that “earlier this week, I was pregnant." That week grew to a month, and now has turned into a quarter of a year. A month from now, what would have been my due date will approach, and time will not slow down or cease to exist just because I dread that day. And after that, it will be one bundle of memories that I tie together in order to move forward and still remember it all; time heals all wounds.

a blog by Traci Shahan, RN, WHNP-BC, Doctor of Nursing, Albrecht Women’s Care Denver IVF, April 22, 2012

Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
—Pablo Neruda

I'm unable to ignore the gift that God gave me, so I'm going to sing.
—Lisa Nicole Larsen

As I pen these words, I do so in my living room, tucked away in a window seat that is swaddled in heavy folds of taupe, silk drapes. This haven of mine is a few steps from the commotion of the family room and kitchen, but with my noise-canceling headphones, it would take a seven on the Richter Scale to get my attention, despite that my almost-15-year-old twin daughters, conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF), are currently trying their hands with some concoction that includes fondant. I can only imagine the mess — flour trails here and there, sugary utensils on the cabinet, measuring cups cast asunder. It is a lazy Sunday afternoon in the Colorado foothills where I live. One of my Labs lies near, her toes twitching as she dreams her doggy dreams. I smell something sweet and yeasty wafting in from the kitchen. It snowed a bit last night, which made my trail run this morning fun and challenging. I sit in my seat. I write, today, about fertility and that we should not ignore our inner wisdom, our Inner Wise Woman. Had I, I certainly would not have become a mother, though it was a herky-jerky, scary, messy journey to get here.