MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012
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How to cope If you’re feeling sad: The endless waiting and hoping has left you feeling irritable, lethargic and extremely sad: Write down a list of all the good things you do have in your life. This will help you visualize your strengths, and forget your weaknesses. If you’re feeling angry: The fact you can’t get pregnant makes you feel helpless and vulnerable: Don’t let this anger consume you. Aerobic exercise such as running or swimming can help relieve some of the accumulated tension. Relaxation techniques such as yoga can also help you clear your mind.
In 2010, 47.7 percent of women fell pregnant after IVF cycles.
If you’re feeling guilty: If repeated attempts at pregnancy have been unsuccessful, you may start to believe that what’s happening to you is your fault: It’s hard to accept that your body is out of your control. Acceptance is the only way to realize you’re not a failure and that you can’t go on blaming yourself.
Top infertility treatments
First-person
‘I have good days and awful days’
IUI (intrauterine insemination) is the placing of sperm into a woman’s uterus during ovulation. Lower tech, less intrusive methods such as IUI are becoming increasingly popular but their success rate depends entirely on the initial cause of the infertility. Clomid is a widely prescribed and inexpensive pill helps women get their ovulation in synch. Clomid tricks the body into believing estrogen levels are low, leading to the release of more eggs. It is one of the most successful fertility drugs. Adoption can be costly and challenging in many ways and its success is hugely dependent on external factors: Should you adopt domestically or internationally? How long are you prepared to wait? Are you mentally able to consider another’s child as your own?
“You’re so young.” I hear this a lot. A subtle implication treads coyly between each word: “You’re so young ... so it should be easy for you to get pregnant.” But the truth is, for me and 7.3 million other Americans, it’s just not that easy. There’s nothing easy about infertility. What doesn’t help are the many assumptions people make: that infertility only affects older women who put their careers first; that if we only “just relax,” we’ll conceive at the drop of a hat; that we’re selfish for pursuing fertility treatments when we should “just adopt.” It’s no wonder then so many people facing infertility suffer in silence. I was 26 when I found I was infertile. Relaxing won’t reverse my disease and there’s nothing selfish about wanting to have my own children. I’m just like any other neighbor, co-worker, sister or friend out there: I’m just
infertile. I have good days and I have really awful days. So while I wait, I share my story. I talk about what it means to be infertile, how it aches and how I remain hopeful. I speak out because I’m tired of being silenced by assumptions that undermine the very real, very valid experiences of infertility patients nationwide. I speak out because I want everyone to understand what infertility is really like. I speak out to end the silence, to help erase social stigmas surrounding infertility because stigma breeds shame. I have no reason to be ashamed: I just have a disease. And if you have infertility, you have no reason to be ashamed, either. — Keiko Zoll is founder and writer of The Infertility Voice, an online empowerment resource for infertility patients.
Join us for the 9th Annual NYC “Run as One” in Central Park to benefit lung cancer research and awareness
April 29, 2012 For more information and registration visit www.lungevity.org/runasone email runasone@lungevity.org phone 312-464-0716