Infertility Survivors Finally Heard
I sat as calmly as I could recently while Esther, an acupuncturist, held my wrists palms up and felt my pulse. My lungs, I shared, had been tested by unrelenting, cumulative wildfire smoke. This precipitated an extended asthma attack and related tightness. “How do you feel?” Esther asked. “Hmmm, asthmatic and a bit stressed,” I […]
World Childless Week is almost upon us. It originated in 2017 to support and build awareness for the childless not by choice community. In its initial week, September 2017, Twitter analytics documented 1.2 million tweets of #worldchildlessweek. In 2018 World Childless Week reached 85 countries. Readers may recall I was one of those who shared […]
Childless not by choice (CNBC) is a community I never expected to join. For many years I didn’t even know this vibrant community existed. However, what I did know 12 years and 8 days ago is this: I was in pain. On my best days I struggled mightily. The worst? I reeled. Imagine a stormy […]
IVF is a Sausage Factory I was not Prepared For… So writes Professor James Arvanitakis in an essay for The Sydney Morning Herald. Oh how we hear you, James. We are immensely grateful for your honesty. In a few paragraphs you painted a clear picture of what it feels like to be on the receiving […]
Thank you to all who participated and read along in the Avalanche: A Love Story book tour. My review ran in The Huffington Post. You can find a summary of the blog book tour here: Fertility Medicine Failures Illuminated. The full set of contributions are also included in this blog post: We’re Not Going to […]
Strong? You want strong? I nominate women who stop or forego risk-laden IVF treatment. Women who stand up to profiteering medical practitioners are as far as you can get from the widespread narrative that those who don’t persist with treatment are weak, pitiful creatures who couldn’t hang. The strong women I know faced the music. […]
Dear Abby (aka Jeanne Phillips), Pamela Jeanne here. Nice to meet you. So let me get right to the point. That 2nd letter you posted today, the one about the woman feeling a void in her life following an infertility diagnosis? Yeah, I’m afraid you struck out. You see the question posed by BROKEN RECORD […]
This guest post comes from Andrea Rose, teacher and budding artist. Andrea’s first husband became infertile due to cancer in their first year of marriage while they were in their early twenties. She and her current husband struggled with male factor and age-related infertility for over ten years. She has had to make difficult decisions […]
On the heels of her recent BBC interview (Drawing the Line: When IVF Doesn’t Work) health advocate and blogger Lesley Pyne offered to have an in-depth chat about my latest writing project, Finally Heard. Grab a cup of coffee or tea (or libation of your choice) and join Lesley and me as we launch into […]
Long-time readers will recall that one particular three-letter word once had the power to torment me. It prompted off-the-chart levels of irritation approaching the second Sunday in May. For instance, you may remember the time in 2009 I asked for reader input on greeting card ideas that we’d never find as a way to let […]