Environmental Infertility: Woman Up and Make The Necessary Changes

Sometimes the results of an infertility work up provide you and your spouse with data that is actionable.  For example, some causes of infertility are purely environmental. And sometimes environmental causes are ‘possible contributing factors.’ Basically ladies, if you are struggling to conceive, don’t wishy-wash around the ‘Is it really? Is this maybe? Could it possibly be preventing…?” and DEAL.

Next Meeting: Thurs, June 21st

We will have our next meeting on Thursday evening June 21st at 7pm.  We are still deciding on the location! Please bring ideas about different posts and entries you would like to see on the blog!

Inviting Guest Bloggers

One thing that I really want to focus on with this blog is that I want it to be a forum for more voices than just mine. I am relatively new to the wholes infertility journey, and still know so very little. I know only my own situation, and little details I pick up from others when chatting...

Grateful for an Uneventful Surgery

My laparoscopy was Thursday and was a nice, short, uneventful surgery.  Which doesn't prevent me from being a total wuss about recovery.  I have an astonishingly low pain threshold. The good thing is, I know this about myself (and now Richard does too) so it helps me eliminate any delusions I might get about skipping the epidural part of childbirth...lol.

Ten Steps to a Successful Semen Analysis

1. Have your semen analysis done by a fertility doctor or a fertility clinic. Busy hospitals and labs can sometimes let samples sit too long before processing them, resulting in faulty results.

How to Help Your Hubby Through the Semen Analysis

Men hate getting this. Maybe Mormon men more than others, I don't know. First of all, it can be awkward and unpleasant to 'retrieve a sample' in medical speak. Second of all, they are usually TERRIFIED that they will come up with a 'bad' diagnosis, of low sperm count, low sperm motility, or dysfunctional sperm.

Doctor Can We Have an Extra Chair: The Power of Husbands at Appointments

From the beginning I told my husband that even though this baby was going to be coming out of my body this was going to be a we thing from start to finish. Which meant if I had to go to the doctor, so did he.

Get Thee to a Fertility Doctor

Although most OBGYN's recommend waiting 12 months to see if you get pregnant before seeing a fertility specialist, IMO (in my opinion) there is no harm in jumping the gun a little.  Especially if you want A LOT of babies and you are not getting any younger!

Why Did it Take me This Long to Reach Out?

For a long time I didn't talk to anyone because at first I assumed we were just on the longer curve for conception, and the big 'infertility' word wasn't really an issue. But each time a cycle ended without my becoming pregnant, my frustration grew.

Why this Group, Why this Blog

It has taken me a bit to feel comfortable starting a blog dedicated to infertility. After all, I discuss the topic on my own blog, ChroniclesofLetty.blogspot.com, so what was the point of an additional forum? However, I recently started meeting with a couple friends who were also struggling to have children. At first there were three of us, then five, then seven, as everyone seemed to know someone else who was facing either primary infertility (difficulty/inability to conceive a first child) or secondary infertility (difficulty/inability to conceive an additional child after a successful pregnancy.) I was startled to realize that instead of being part of what felt like a very small minority (especially in the LDS culture) I was part of an ever-growing community of women who desperately wanted children, but were having a hard time getting them here to earth!

I started this blog today because a friend of mine asked me if I would consider making the group available to a wider community, inviting women to come who I might not know by face or name, but who are found sprinkled throughout the LDS wards (congregations) in St. Louis. Of course, anyone not of the Mormon faith is more than welcome to attend, but thus far the only women I have known well enough to invite are Mormon. So spread the word folks!

What do we do in Infertility Support Group? Well, we talk, we laugh, we SUPPORT. Sometimes we just sit and chat, sometimes we eat at a fun restaurant, sometimes we catch a movie, sometimes we go to Walgreen's en masse to help our newest member find the appropriate supplies...lol. Often we share Dr. information, insurance information, adoption information, natural remedy information, helpful articles and scriptures. The most fascinating thing I have found about the support group is that I didn't know I needed it until I had it, and my sisters and friends poured solace into wounded places I didn't know I was harboring.

So far sharing my burdens with this group of women has been a source of enormous comfort, and an invaluable source of information.  A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved, according the old proverb. I don't know if sorrow shared is halved, but I can testify that it is lessened. Perhaps because as sisters we constantly remind ourselves that 'joy cometh in the morning' and that our Father in Heaven is mindful of every cry from our heart. And that, ultimately, God is able, and the one whose eye is on the sparrow also keeps an eye on our ovulation charts...

"The issue for us is trusting God enough to trust also His timing. If we can truly believe He has our welfare at heart, may we not let His plans unfold as He thinks best?"

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, General Conference October, 2003 "Timing"

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2003/10/timing?lang=eng

In His infinite Atonement, Jesus Christ literally suffered the pain of what it felt like to face another month without a child, what it feels like to look back upon two years not as two years, but as 24 separate months where no baby came. So even if you don't feel comfortable or able to come visit with our little band of sisters, please allow the comforting love of the Savior to fill your heart and soul.

 "...and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."  

The Book of Mormon, Alma 7:12