This is kind of a long story but I wanted to share because I think it could be useful to someone, somewhere, someday... Rewind just one week and I was in the kitchen administering my first IVF stimulation injection with nothing but quivering hands and total optimism for some good ol’ text book follicle growth.... Continue Reading →
Anyone who has so much as dipped their little toe in the ocean of infertility will have been told, at one point or another (but most likely several hundred times), that they need to “just relax”. Given that the reason for mine and Simon’s infertility is a lack of motile sperm (which is quite obviously... Continue Reading →
Our first IVF cycle begins in January and despite the fact that it’s taken 812 days and 29 sad, unfertilized eggs to get to this point, I’m still in a state of total disbelief that we’re here. But we are here and this is happening. [For any fans of The Office (US version) – that... Continue Reading →
“When are you going to have a baby?” Shortly after getting married, I started being asked this at an alarming frequency – not by my friends and family but, almost exclusively, by people who weren’t particularly close to me (distant relatives, nosey neighbours, Barbara from accounts etc.) It’s an incredibly invasive, potentially triggering and not... Continue Reading →
At the beginning of 2018, with over a year’s worth of very decidedly unsafe sex under my belt and shortly after learning that my husband and I were working with “sub-optimal” (read: lazy) sperm, I started writing a journal…of sorts. At this point, nobody knew of our desire - let alone our struggle - to... Continue Reading →
Paying for private fertility treatment is a luxury (and I use that word lightly) that not everyone can afford. On the flip side, access to free fertility treatment on the NHS is a luxury that not everyone can take advantage of. The “postcode lottery” in the UK means that, essentially, the street you live on... Continue Reading →
As featured on Scary Mommy. Fertility doctors don’t “beat around the bush” and this expression, so apt and so full of innuendo, is the most perfect way to describe every single conversation we’ve had regarding our fertility. I’ve become so accustomed to speaking openly about this sort of stuff that my sense of normal conversational... Continue Reading →
Somehow, through a mixture of happy coincidences and shameless self-promotion, I've landed myself a little writing job. Over the past few weeks, I've been working with a company called abc ivf who offer the UK's most affordable IVF treatment. Professor Geeta Nargund and her team of fertility specialists recognise that not everybody is lucky enough... Continue Reading →
I'm not talking about the Kardashian-Jenner’s who are well on their way to building an army of beautiful offspring that will no doubt be listed on the “Forbes most powerful” before they hit puberty. Nor am I talking about the young Royals, who've given us a wedding, a pregnancy and a newborn in the space... Continue Reading →
By day 2 of trying for a baby I thought - oh right, I'm pregnant now. Two weeks later, having spent much of that time re-imagining the next 9 months as a pregnant woman, I was totally perplexed when a very unwelcome "Aunt Flow" arrived right on schedule. How could I not be pregnant? I’d... Continue Reading →