With May Day behind us, I put some thought towards myths that exist for current times. Although most of us do not worship gods and goddesses anymore there are still myths that we deal with on a daily basis. This got me thinking about myths regarding fertility and infertility that some of us have experienced either directly or indirectly. I know that while I was trying to conceive, experiencing my pregnancy, then adopting there were many off-hand remarks said to me, that were not fact-based. It seemed like everyone had an opinion, or an answer whether I asked for it or not! Knowing me though, I probably did ask for many of them. I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut when it comes to talking about my life and my problems! It used to drive my husband crazy until he learned to live with it. He also realized that the more I talked to others, the less I made myself crazy.
I found an article tiltled Infertility Myths by Kim Elise Goldman on About.com. She listed ten myths. Here they are, and I’ll post my personal commentary on each one in my next couple of posts. I’m sure that there are more, but this seemed like a pretty complete sample. If anyone else out there has more to add, I’d love to hear them. Actually, reading through these myths made me realize that I have also been guitly of repeating them before I knew better! Live and learn.
- Getting pregnant is easy.
- If you have periods, you’ll get pregnant.
- If you adopt, you’ll get pregnant.
- Fertility problems are always the woman.
- If you’re over 35, you need to seek infertility treatment immediately.
- Your fertility problems are all in your head.
- If you wait long enough you’ll get pregnant.
- Infertility will break up your marriage.
- If you’ve previously had a baby, then you’re not infertile.
- You can self medicate to get pregnant.
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May 2nd, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Hey — where’s Marie?
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Marie decided to leave…but now we have Karianne! Welcome!
I posted about myth #3 in my blog a couple of weeks ago. The thing was that I absolutely did *not* want to get pregnant once we adopted. I had had a number of miscarriages and was done with it.
What made me the angriest was myth #6. I had a close friend (who should have known better, since she herself is infertile) tell me that I wasn’t able to stay pregnant because I wasn’t welcoming the baby – I didn’t want it enough – I was sending hostile vibes to my uterus or something.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Oh boy, infertility is such a personal emotional topic. How insensitve can people be?
Welcome!
May 3rd, 2006 at 6:16 pm
Wow! Thanks for the welcoming comments you guys. I appreciate it.