{"id":75053,"date":"2017-02-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fertilitysmarts.com\/2017\/02\/07\/why-i-chose-to-be-open-about-my-infertility"},"modified":"2023-11-09T22:21:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T22:21:06","slug":"why-i-chose-to-be-open-about-my-infertility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fertilitysmarts.com\/why-i-chose-to-be-open-about-my-infertility\/2\/1309","title":{"rendered":"Why I Chose To Be Open About My Infertility"},"content":{"rendered":"
I sat in the waiting room for my first appointment at the fertility clinic and I decided that now was the time. I started writing my “coming out” post where I told everyone on my Facebook feed about my infertility. All those comments about my husband and I being \u201ctoo busy\u201d to have a baby? Lies.<\/p>\n
The truth was we had been trying for the past three years to get pregnant and had been hopelessly unsuccessful. Along with my diagnosis, I sat in that waiting room and wrote about how much my husband and I would need the support of our friends and family in the coming months. As I hit the send button I experienced a moment of panic: How will people react to my most private confession?<\/p>\n
I received replies to my post immediately and what I read choked me up; comment after comment came in, from our friends family, and even acquaintances, showering both of us with love and support. They called us \u201cbrave\u201d for coming forward and sharing something so personal. By the time our doctor came in for our appointment, I had tears streaming down my face.<\/p>\n
It was at that moment that I decided to start a blog to document our journey to become parents and I also decided to be very, very open about the experience. Here are five reasons why I choose to be open about our infertility.<\/p>\n
1. I was Tired of Keeping our Infertility a Secret<\/h2>\n
If you\u2019re married or in a committed relationship, you\u2019ve likely had the <\/em>question asked of you, and probably more than once. You know the one. The query that, while on the surface, seems pretty innocent, is, in reality, actually entirely inappropriate to even be asking.<\/p>\n
It goes a little like this: \u201cSo when are you two going to have kids?\u201d No pressure, right? My husband and I always were able to field this question by simply giving a little laugh and explaining how both of us were in school right now and were \u201cway too busy\u201d to think about kids. This response always garnered a satisfied nod, but as graduation day started quickly approaching for both of us, we knew we needed a new explanation.<\/p>\n
It was at this point that I realized how tired I was of hiding that the real issue wasn’t when<\/em> we were going to have kids, but that we actually had<\/em> been trying – and had yet to be successful. I thought that perhaps if everyone knew the truth, they would stop asking when<\/em>. And guess what? They did. When we opened up about our infertility, I felt like I could finally breathe again.<\/p>\n
2. I Want Others to Understand that Infertility is a Disease<\/h2>\n
Once the secret about our defective reproductive plumbing was revealed, people replaced their when<\/em> questions with well-intended, yet often terrible advice on how<\/em> we could successfully become pregnant. As the months went by, I had all of the insider tips – everything from standing on my head after sex to \u201cjust adopting and you\u2019ll get pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n