Bloggers

Mum’s the Word

a blog by liz, February 8, 2010

I’m not embarrassed about having difficulty conceiving. It’s one of those things I had as little control over as my natural hair colour (that problem, with a little color, is a lot easier solved than my genetic inability to conceive).

The majority of my friends and immediate family know what’s going on. In fact, one of the reasons I started my blog is so my friends can keep up to date with what is happening in my life whilst ensuring that they don’t ask the wrong question at the wrong time and reduce me to a blubbering wreck.

There are people in my life who don’t know.

Giveaway: Love and Infertility

We're giving away a signed copy of the 2009 Hope Award for Best Book: Love and Infertility: Survival Strategies for Balancing Infertility, Marriage, and Life by our own Kristen Magnacca!

Tomorrow I'll be posting some thoughts from Kristen but today it's all about the giveaway!

What Do Men Think About Infertility?

a blog by murgdan, Feb. 5, 2010

Few thing can make a diagnosis of male factor infertility more gut-wrenching than it is all of its own accord, but male factor infertility when your partner started out somewhat ambivalent about the child-bearing question? Little bit harder.

Affording IVF in a Tough Economy

a blog by David Kreiner, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., Feb. 3, 2010

Most people don’t have insurance coverage for IVF services, which means infertility treatment is out of reach for most in need. To those affected, it’s hard to understand why insurance provides coverage for other chronic illnesses or conditions, but not for a medical condition which prevents individuals from having children and building their families.

The current economy has forced many to resort to less expensive treatments including taking ovulation inducing hormones that stimulate multiple eggs and result in high-risk, costly multiple pregnancies. It’s ironic that insurers are concerned that covering IVF treatment will lead to greater expenses when affordable IVF would actually save insurers money.

A.R.T. Study Anyone?

a blog by lashaundra, Feb. 3, 2010

Though the current economy is making the most spend-happy people turn frugal, saving money is nothing new to those undergoing fertility treatments. When my husband and I were gearing up for our first IVF, we found creative ways to save money. We started bringing our lunches to work, shopped less, looked for jobs that covered IVF, and considered taking second jobs.

I bring this up because the fact is, though people are losing their jobs, houses, and cars in this current economy, they still want babies and their biological clocks are still ticking. A little known fact in the fertility community is some fertility clinics offer fertility research studies.

World Health Organization Defines Infertility as a Disease

a blog by Pamela Tsigdinos, Feb. 2, 2010

Barren. Unfruitful. Infertile.

These words offers up many shades of gray, don’t they? They certainly did for me, in particular, "infertile." I still remember the first time I saw the term in a brochure in an OB-Gyn office. I was much more naïve and younger then. My brain didn’t know how to process it -- going from “what’s that?” to “oh, not me!”

In time, I became embarrassed and shamed by the word. It wasn’t discussed openly. It was whispered about. Accordingly, I felt guilty about it. Condemned by it.

Society seemed most comfortable keeping the word shrouded in stigma. Until one day -- that being November 30, 2009 -- it was brought out of the closet. Held up under a different light and with the stroke of a pen it moved from a shadowy term with judgment hanging in the balance to an altogether new category:

Infertility = Disease

Yes, it was on November 30 -- just a few short months ago -- when the World Health Organization stepped forward to declare for the very first time that infertility is a disease.

Taking a Break from Treatment

a blog by tori, Jan. 29, 2010

In my last blog I wrote a bit about the fact that my husband and I are now on a forced break from fertility treatments. When I started to pull myself out of my miscarriage grief and get back into my normal groove, it was really hard to come to grips with not trying to get pregnant -- naturally or through treatments. It’s funny how during treatment I could look at the needles and the progesterone and the “sharps” container and be so upset that I had to go through all of this to have a baby, yet when I no longer had to deal with any of that, it was even harder to adjust.

When you’ve lived life in two-week increments for nearly two years, and then suddenly you have all the time in the world, it’s hard. There are no constraints. No planned sex. No skipping the caffeine and sushi. No anxiously awaiting an HCG blood test. You are just . . . free. And yet, gaining freedom is admitting that you are losing a dream. Maybe not forever, but at least for the moment. It’s hard to enjoy the sushi and soda. It’s even harder to enjoy the “boost-you-out-of-your-grief” drink your friend buys you when in the back of your head all you are thinking is “I shouldn’t be able to have alcohol right now!”

Get Started on Your Fertility Diet!

by Cindy Bailey, Jan. 28, 2010

It should be no secret by now that diet has a huge impact on fertility. How you eat affects your general health, so it makes sense that it affects your reproductive health too.

When eating for fertility, the goal is to increase the availability of nutrients that support your reproduction, as well as your overall health. You’ll also want to eat to support your hormonal health – because those finely tuned balance of hormones is so important to fertility and conception. Processed sugar for example negatively affects blood sugar and insulin levels and leads to hormonal imbalance, so that’s one of the foods you’ll want to eliminate from your diet while trying to conceive.

A Holistic RX for Giuliana & Bill

a blog by Beth and Tami of Pulling Down the Moon

I’ve never before watched the Giuliana & Bill reality TV show, but the title of last week’s episode caught my eye as I was scrolling through the cable guide: “Operation Ovulation.” Could they possibly be talking about ovulation as in “having a baby” or was this some sort of new real estate term Bill learned as Donald Trump’s apprentice? I just had to watch to find out.

Indeed, it appears as though the happy couple have decided it is time to start a family. Giuliana lives in Los Angeles and Bill in Chicago but they try to see each other at least a few days each week. Knowing what it takes for gals to get pregnant, I started to wonder exactly how this immaculate conception might take place. Luckily, Giuliana is being treated by Dr. Elias Sabbagha, a well-known and respected doc in Chicago who just so happens to be my doctor as well. I was glued.

How I Got People Talking About Infertility

a blog by kathleen puls andrade, Jan.22, 2010

I just finished a run of my show Journey to the Center of the Uterus at Baylor University and I figure if it can run there, it can run anywhere! For those of you who don’t know, Baylor is a very conservative school in Waco, TX which is one of the bigger notches in the Bible Belt. My friend, the chairman of the theater department, invited me to bring the show there and do some workshops. I performed for the students and community of Waco and,

Greening Your Wash

a blog by marie lee, Jan. 21, 2010

You need to wash your clothes. You should wash your clothes. In fact, you HAVE TO wash your clothes. Especially, when they are new. My friend who writes the enormously popular Green Babies organic blog warned me about all the crap they put on clothes to make them look brighter and more attractive in the store. Ready? Some special shiny “sizing” stuff which makes them fold better; pesticides if they are going to sit in the warehouse a long time; formaldehyde. She said this even happens with organic stuff, as once it leaves the factory, there’s not a lot of control. So wash up!

New Blog for Choice Moms

a blog by mikki, Jan. 14, 2010

I am a Choice Mom.

Depending on who you talk to, that might mean I’m selfish, cocky, or something akin to a tasty piece of beef. But what I mean by the term is how I defined it in my Choosing Single Motherhood book in 2005: I am a single woman who consciously and proactively decided to become a responsible mother on my own.

In fact, in 2009 New Oxford’s New American dictionary considered “Choice Mom” a contender for word of the year. Whether that is a true mark of legitimacy I cannot say, but the new term is increasingly popular. I created it as an alternative to its older sister (created by Jane Mattes more than 25 years ago), “single mother by choice,” to put the emphasis on Choice, not Single, in our motherhood journey. Most of us did not choose to become single mothers. Rather, we chose to become mothers, even though we are single.

All Worked Up About Surrogacy

a blog by the editors

I’m always amazed at how quick people are to judge. Truly, when I think about it, I’m shocked. Are we really that afraid of people who have views different than ours? Now, I’m not saying I never judge – I’d be lying -- but I guess because of my line of work, I feel much less apt to say someone’s family building choices are right or wrong, moral or amoral.

A recent article in the New York Times, Building a Baby, With Few Ground Rules, by Stephanie Saul, tells a horror story about a husband and wife who hired a surrogate to build their family (using donor sperm and a donor egg). The woman who acted as surrogate -- a married mother with four children of her own -- gave birth to the couple’s twins. The twins went home with the intended parents as planned. The surrogate later sued for (and won) custody of the twins when it was determined the intended mother was “unfit” because of a history of mental health issues.

Surrogacy Done Right

a blog by Theresa Erickson, Esq.

By now, you’ve either heard or read about the New York Times article written by Stephanie Saul. When I first read it, I was shocked by how the writer created fear in the minds of all intended parents, prospective or otherwise. She created an almost “Glenn Beck” style frenzy behind a child-building option that is often the only option for some. But bad stories sell, not the thousands with beautiful endings. Apparently the Times needed to sell some papers.

My New Identity: the Parent-to-be.

a blog by joy, Dec. 28, 2009

Two people in the last week have asked me if I’m excited about having a baby. And it wasn’t “Aren’t you excited?” It was more like “Aren’t you excited?!" The first friend to ask told me that I never sound excited when I talk about having a baby. I told her that when you’ve been through what I’ve been through, you sort wait for that other shoe to drop. She told me to “get over it.” This conversation really bothered me, so I decided to talk to other friends about it. Another friend said she “could see how someone might think that” about me.

Holy crap. People think I’m not excited? Am I excited? The truth is, not all the time.

An Interactive Q&A with Stirrup Queen Melissa Ford

> ABOUT THE BOOK
> ABOUT MELISSA FORD
> READ EXCERPTS
> BUY THE BOOK

We're willing to bet that you already know Melissa Ford. Well, you may know her by her moniker, Stirrup Queen, or by her nom-de-type, Lollipop Goldstein, but anyone who's dealt with infertility for a nanosecond has come across Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters, Melissa's popular blog.

Melissa's also recently written a book, Navigating the LAND of IF: Understanding Infertility and Exploring Your Options (Seal Press 2009). It's an excellent "how-to" that will help you confront the options (and obstacles) you face when dealing with infertility. We've read it cover-to-cover and have invited Melissa here to discuss it with you.

Dirty Little Secret

a blog by Brenda

How about a little Confession Time!! I’ll go first.

• I "hide" plastic eggs filled with treats for our dogs every Easter (and on other occasions throughout the year when I am home alone with them).

• I claim to hate all reality TV, but am really a closet addict of The Hills.

• My husband and I went out for “dinner” this week … to Dairy Queen … and we both had Blizzards.

• I have not told my family about our infertility.

Gasp. Groan. Sigh. Moan.