This week is National Infertility Awareness Week and I am joining the movement. Over 7 million people suffer from the reproductive disease of infertility. I am one of those 7 million people. My husband and I have been trying to conceive for 5 years and have been thru 5 miscarriages. The most recent one was confirmed last Monday, 4/15. While the pain of that is still very fresh and my emotions are still very raw, I know that I can't let it pass by without talking about it. I am not going to be silent because that is what so many people in the infertility community do. We stay silent.
We stay silent out of fear of judgement. We stay silent out of the shame we think we have to feel. We stay silent because we don't want to make other people uncomfortable. We stay silent because we think we must somehow have deserved to have the precious gift that was given to us taken away. We stay silent because we think its supposed to be a private matter. We stay silent for lots of reasons. But 7 million people staying silent gives infertility a lot of power. How can we, in the infertility community, expect to get support from those who love us and from those who can make a difference like doctors and insurance companies and law makers, if we don't give them a chance to support us? If we don't give them a chance to join the movement?
If you want to support me, if you want to support National Infertility Awareness Week, if you want to support the over 7 million people who are battling the dream crushing-heartbreaking-devastating-emotion draining-hope stealing-kick me in the face while I'm down jerkface infertility, then join the movement. Check out these links:
http://www.resolve.org/infertility-overview/what-is-infertility/
http://www.resolve.org/national-infertility-awareness-week/about.html
Thank you for reading this. It means a lot to me that you care enough to visit my blog.
<3 you my friend. -Katie
ReplyDeleteLove you too. Thank you for reading and responding.
DeleteWay to go Sara! I know it took a lot of courage to share this. Stay strong.
ReplyDelete-gana
Thank you!
DeleteI love you, sweetie. The unfairness of this being your struggle (you and Dan, who would both be such amazing parents) makes me want to scream. Wish I could give you a big hug! I'm keeping you in my prayers; I just wish I could do more. ((((hugs))))
ReplyDeleteThanks. I think we'd make pretty great parents too, which is part of what makes this so difficult. Sometimes I tell myself that maybe I'd be a terrible mom or maybe we're not meant to be parents and that's the reason its not happening for us, but I know that's not true.
DeleteNew follower! Thanks for sharing and speaking out!
ReplyDeleteThank you for following.
DeleteI am so, so sorry for your recent loss. Thank you for this post, which couldn't have been easy at such a raw time. I loved your statement that the silence gives infertility the power, when we should be handing that power to the people for support and legislation that can help make infertility dreams a reality. Good luck to you and I wish you peace and healing during this time of compounded loss.
ReplyDeleteWhat a good point you had about millions of people staying silent giving infertility even more power. What an excellent point. I hadn't thought about it that way before.
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