A I await answers from agents I’ve queried about my memoir and continue to get the same response of “not for me,” I get increasingly frustrated at the stigma attached to infertility. Why is it that we have memoirs for cancer survivors, pink ribbons, go RED campaigns for heart disease, walk-a-thons, tel-a-thons and huge national fundraisers for various other causes out there but no body wants to talk about infertility or raise money or awareness?
Even though I’m not in the thick of my struggle anymore, my infertility is not behind me. I’m still trying to make time to advocate for this disease. And that’s why I will continue to strive to get my story out there to help others going through it and to work on other book ideas in the health genre focused on infertility. Of course, that’s also the reason I write this blog. I’m trying to prove that just because I may have been successful with my battle, there is still a fight to be fought. I am trying to break the silence and change the stigma.
I’m linking to an article I stumbled on recently. And even though much of the information isn’t eye-opening for many of us infertiles, it brings a smile to my face that a major magazine like Self even published this at all. It’s about ‘breaking the silence’ from the waiting room all the way to Congress and it’s worth the read!
Breaking the Silence
Dr. Robert G. Edwards, the British scientist who developed in vitro fertilization, was recently awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in Physiology or Medicine. I have to say that is a huge accomplishment for the infertility community! For Fertility News Friday, here’s a short article about it which includes some interesting stats…
So, I know Fertility News is on Friday but I had to post this because it’s been brewing on my mind. On August 5th, (as I’m sure you may have heard), the first woman conceived through IVF in America gave birth to a baby boy ‘the natural way.’ And while this is a fantastic milestone in infertility, after reading this CNN article and it’s comments, I wonder if we have really come so far in the last 29 years.
So as I was compiling the 
This Fertility News Friday, I wanted to kick off ICLW! (Which is Stirrup Queen’s 
RELAX?!?
istock photo
OK, so I was caught up in a post recently from Busted Plumbing about an Infertile Cat Fight which involved a comment left on Naomi’s 999 Reasons to Laugh at Infertility‘s Face.book page. A woman who had gone through PCOS and over 2 years of TTC recently got pregnant and felt that ”the reason it happened was bcz i stopped thinkin about it.” Then a fight ensued as many women took offense to it and it went back and forth. (See the whole text here if you’re dying to read it all! And while you’re there go over to my page to become a fan!
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Anyway, it got me thinking about how the whole “RELAX!” or “Just don’t think about it” comments and how it could relate to my blog. I am well aware that the title “Stress Free Infertility” can be considered an oxymoron. You may wonder how you could possibly be stress FREE through your infertility…and perhaps it may be construed as me telling you to RELAX and you will get pregnant.
Many readers may be thinking that your infertility causes stress and stress could potentially be contributing to your infertility and it is a vicious cycle that you feel trapped in. Well, it is this very thinking that got me to create this blog.
So rest assured that although I would never come right out and say it, I am not even implying for you to RELAX throughout my blog posts because this very comment would most probably cause more stress! But by reducing the stress you are under in the various ways presented here, you may have better results in getting pregnant (which is detailed in the article linked below).
Ask yourself this, if you do something that helps with stress (meditating, reading, writing, listening to music, acupuncture, getting a massage, sleeping soundly, etc.) don’t you feel better overall? That is my goal…to help you through this whole mess of infertility by feeling better. If you are able to achieve a pregnancy, then that is another wonderful side effect now isn’t it?
While writing this, I stumbled on an excellent article worth checking out.
Stress and Infertility
(Since I haven’t done a Fertility News post in a while, consider this a consolation prize!)