Education: Talking About Infertility

A few months ago, I wrote about having a perfect opportunity to talk about infertility with another young woman. Like a fool, I let it slip away.

Believe it or not, the opportunity presented itself again. This time, I took it.

And it was so much easier than I thought it would be.

This time, we were driving back from another overnight trip for work, (one in which I had surreptitiously slipped into the bathroom of our shared room to shoot my lupron that morning). We were talking about kids and our general annoyance with them (yes, it’s true, just because I want a child doesn’t mean I am a big fan of yours) and she asked,

“Do you think you and M are ever going to have kids?” and it felt like a very different question than the “why don’t you have kids?” that I was faced with months ago at work. This felt like a question that I could answer.

“Well, um, actually, we are trying. And we’ve been trying for over a year now….” And then it went from there. Me explaining my mysterious “sick” days, giving a quick IVF 101, talking about the meds and injections and other factors involved in all of this. She had no idea, and she was such a thoughtful listener that I kicked myself for thinking this would be a hard conversation to have. She asked,

“So, are you, like, all hormonal all the time?”

Well, h*ll. If you couldn’t tell, I’m not going to tell you. That’s one thing that I’ll try to keep to myself.