The Infertility Expert |
||||
|
|
Instead, I have to pay them a large sum of money which seems very unfair. I didn’t start out as an infertility expert. A few short years ago, I knew little about infertility, conception and the challenges about becoming pregnant. Naively, I thought that you simply throw your birth control pills out the window and you were bound to get pregnant the next day. HA! I must have been absent the day my school teacher talked about infertility. Oh wait. That class never existed. In health class, we learned about using birth control and how to protect ourselves from sexually transmitted diseases. The teacher made it seem like the minute you stopped using a condom, you were bound to get pregnant. No one ever mentioned that perhaps not every adult woman could get pregnant so easily. I think many of us left school believing that sex automatically leads us to pregnancy. So imagine my surprise, many years later and happily married, that starting a family was difficult. I referred back to my (somewhat outdated) health class pregnancy checklist: 1) Get married to someone you love. CHECK 2) Be financially stable and ready to start a family. CHECK 3) Visit your family physician. CHECK 4) Stop using birth control pills. CHECK 5) Get pregnant. ??? But teacher, I followed my checklist, so what happened? I had to learn about Step 6: Infertility, all on my own. I had no idea how to check for ovulation (let alone saying it without blushing) or discover the correct times to have sex. What is a basal body temperature anyways and why do infertility websites use so many acronyms like TTC? I was shocked to learn that most women have difficulty conceiving; and the odds of getting pregnant every month were actually very low. As each month ended, I found myself becoming more and more knowledgeable about infertility, and couples started asking me questions about their own situations. Do I want to be an infertility expert? No. But as long as I’m helping other women like me, then I’m okay with my role, for now. Comments (3)
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed |
... I have become the person my friends come to with questions as well. I'm glad I can be a help to them, but I wish I had had someone to ask questions in this journey too. The internet has been a great support, but it's different when you know the person in real life. |
InfertileNaomi
said:
 |
... It is nice to have friends you can talk to about infertility that actually understand. But your virtual infertility friends (like me!) are real women too who can help. |
Infertile Naomi the 2nd
said:
|
... I feel like that too! I've seen fertility specialists who I feel like I know more than. My friends come to me for advice - but I'm turning into a bitter old barren woman. The last friend I gave advice to who had her first child without even knowing what ovulation was - concieved the next month after I told her about mucous and the fertile window - she had no idea! |
Sign up for our free weekly eNews!
