In my last post, I provided tips for surviving baby showers. Now let's talk about how to survive meeting the baby when he arrives.

When I was trying to become a mother, I could not handle being around many pregnant women. However, two of the people I was closest to in the world (a friend and my sister) became pregnant during this time. I was not going to sever the relationships just because they were pregnant, especially since I needed their ... more

One of the biggest challenges I faced while trying to become a mother was attending baby showers. This was an issue both during fertility procedures and while waiting to adopt. I wrote about this topic on my Hoping to Adopt blog as well:

• Surviving the Wait: Baby Showers
• Surviving the Wait: Baby Shower Survival ... more

Some fertility clinics require you to obtain a semen sample on the premises. However, if you live fairly close to your clinic, you might be able to obtain the specimen in the privacy of your bedroom. I was so relieved that this was an option for us. While it is helpful for a man to be able to "take care of business" at home, it does create an interesting dilemma - how to transport the specimen over to the clinic.

Here are things to remember if you find yourself in the awkward position of transporting specimens to the ... more

My husband used to have a low sperm count until he had a varicocele removed. The surgery corrected the problem, and he is now fertile. Unfortunately, since he is still married to an infertile woman, his fertility is not doing him much good. Such is life.

When my husband found out his sperm count was low, he took the news hard. My husband is a tall, muscular man and is "macho" in temperament. If you put him in a line-up, you truly would not guess that he was the ... more

Isn't the word barren such an awful term? I am so glad we have moved on to the word infertile because at least that sounds clinical. Barren sounds like a wasteland - as if my womb, which is supposed to be fertile, is instead a shriveled up raisin.

As much as I dislike the word, barren captures the pain that a woman feels when she is unable to conceive a child. Many women question whether they are even women when they cannot bear a child. If your uterus is unable to knit life together and ... more

When did I reach a place where I could say words like sperm or intercourse without blushing or at least having to take a deep breath first? I would guess that happened early in our fertility treatments.

When I was younger, I was much more reserved than I am now. I did not talk about things like sperm or ejaculation. The next thing I knew, I was driving across town with my husband's semen in a see-through container, hoping that I would not be pulled over and have to explain to a police ... more

FertilityCommunity.com has an interesting article about whether there is a link between childhood abuse and infertility. As an infertile woman who was abused as a child, the article Unspeakable Realities Entwined: Child Abuse & Infertility jumped out at me.

Let me start by saying that I found it both sad that others have known both pains as well as ... more

What causes infertility to happen in the first place? That is the million-dollar question, isn't it? When you consider that, even with a low sperm count, you can have millions of sperm coming into direct contact with a large egg (relatively speaking), it seems unlikely that conception could fail to happen month after month. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happens to millions of couples in the United States alone. (See New Fertility ... more

In my post Progesterone, I talked about my own experience with taking the hormone progesterone. Fertility specialists often prescribe progesterone supplements a few days after possible conception until either early in the pregnancy or a negative pregnancy test result. The progesterone supports the embryo until the umbilical cord is formed.

While I was sharing my story, I did not get ... more

I have two friends who were unable to get pregnant until they tried the drug Lupron. Both have gone on to conceive three healthy children. Because they were both successful, I thought I would provide you with information about this drug.

The technical name for Lupron is Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone Analog (GnRH-a). (Try saying that five times quickly!) Lupron is one of several brand names for this drug. Since ... more

Undergoing fertility procedures can be similar to trying to walk in quicksand. You can see your savings account, hopes, and dreams sinking into the ground, and the more you struggle, the faster they seem to sink.

Setting boundaries is crucial before starting fertility procedures. When you are desperate to become a parent, it is easy to fall into the trap of saying, "Whatever it takes." The problem is that there are no guarantees with fertility treatments. It breaks my heart to hear about people who invest their life savings on ... more

When I was looking to start a fertility support group, a friend told a friend about it. Even though this woman was distraught over her infertility and definitely needed support, she declined to join our group because she already had a biological child. She suffered from a condition known as secondary infertility, which means that she was able to conceive a child but then later was unable to conceive again.

The woman believed that she ... more

A reader contacted me about his blog entitled My Vasectomy Reversal. Here is how he described his blog in his e-mail:

We've blogged the entire story of our fertility trials and tribulations, from vasectomy reversal surgery, through a miscarriage, to the birth of a healthy baby boy...

I checked out his blog, and this looks like a wonderful resource for those of you who are facing fertility challenges involving a vasectomy reversal. He has also done ... more

I have been talking about fertility support groups in these posts:

• Starting a Fertility Support Group
• How to Structure a Fertility Support Group

I am now going to focus on the challenges you might face in a fertility support group.

When our fertility support group first started, every member ... more

In my last post, How to Structure a Fertility Support Group, I mentioned that I selected the book Infertility: A Survival Guide for Couples and Those Who Love Them by Cindy Lewis Dake as the text for the support group I founded. Before continuing the support group discussion, I would like to review the book for you.

I considered several texts for the support group, but I settled upon ... more

In my last post, Starting a Fertility Support Group, I talk about how I formed a fertility support group. Rather than dictate the structure of the support group, I asked the participants at the first meeting what they were looking for. I tailored the support group to meet their needs, and it was quite successful in helping them along their journeys to parenthood. They have thanked me many times over for starting this support group because it ... more

When I was going through fertility procedures, I desperately wanted to talk with someone else who understood what I was going through, so I was thrilled when my doctor gave me a flyer about a support group that one of the nurses was organizing. I brought the flyer home and showed it to my husband, who was not at all interested in "sitting around talking about infertility issues." So, I decided to go alone to find the emotional support I needed.

The support group met at the doctor's office on a weeknight, and you could cut ... more

Lisa Safran has written a funny book called Laughin'fertility, which focuses on the humorous aspects of fertility procedures. (I referenced her book in my last post, Fertility versus Infertility.) Considering how depressing the whole process can be, I think it is a great idea to find a way to laugh through your tears. This is what Ms. ... more

I have a confession to make. When I offered to blog about fertility, I was not entirely sure that I was qualified for the job. This blog is called a "fertility" blog, not an "infertility" one. Yes, I have a lot of experience with infertility, but fertility? Not so much.

Actually succeeding in getting pregnant is not my area of expertise. However, I thought that somebody who is fertile probably does not have many issues to discuss on a blog and concluded that this blog really is about infertility after all. ... more

When I was trying to conceive, I lost count of the number of "solutions" to our woes offered by well-meaning family and friends. I can look back now and see the humor in these suggestions. However, when I was going through the process, I was not amused.

Here are some of the solutions that I was offered:

• Just relax.
• Go on a cruise.
• Buy a two-seater car.
• Have sex in the back seat of a car.
• Drink cough syrup to thin your cervical fluids.
• Hold your legs in the air for 20 minutes after ... more

One of the most frequently asked questions by anyone struggling with infertility is "Why me?" The unfairness slaps us in the face repeatedly as we hear stories of women abandoning their babies in dumpsters and parents abusing their children. All we want to do is love a child, and yet Mother Nature repeatedly denies us this experience while allowing other people, even those who do not want children or even abuse their children, to conceive.

Everything inside of ourselves screams at the unfairness of it all, and yet there is ... more

In my last post, Fertility Success Stories, I shared several fertility success stories experienced by people in my life. All of these people were blessed to hold their biological children in their arms after struggling to conceive them. However, those are not the only successful stories shared by people in my life. I would be remiss if I left out one of my favorite success stories, which is different from the others.

I want to send out a ... more

While I view my own fertility story as a successful one because it ultimately led me to my child through adoption, some of you who are reading this blog might not agree. For some of you, the goal is to become pregnant, and hearing the "A" word is not comforting to you. So, I would like to share some fertility success stories experienced by people in my life. These are not stories that I have heard about or read about: These are people in my life who have battled infertility and won by conceiving and giving birth to healthy ... more