In Vitro Fertility Goddess
There are very few things to derive comfort from when in the midst of the infertility quagmire (and I'm sorry, but green tea does not have the reassuring ‘It'll be right, pet' qualities of a normal cup of tea).
For instance a glass of chardonnay or a gin and tonic is on the ‘Not Recommended' or ‘Forbidden' lists of Conception Advice, depending on how militant they are.
Having a natter with girlfriends is also out. If they're not going through the same thing, their eyes will rapidly take on a faraway look and they will do that vague repetitive ‘hmm' sound which signals a loss of interest and a slight impatience for you to end the topic so you end up sighing and listening to their latest career drama instead.
And talking to parents is a waste of time as they were from the era when infertility didn't exist and over-fertility was the problem, i.e., too may unwanted pregnancies.
So, when, as I did, you stumble across a site on the Internet like ‘Trying to Conceive' it is practically a cause for celebration. My goodness, here was my tribe, a seemingly enormous group of women like myself who spoke my language and shared my hobbies of ‘researching blighted ova' and ‘taking my basal temperature'. There were forums, personal success-after-trial-and-tribulation stories, even an infertility message board.
Suddenly I was spending happy hours with these people, in the process learning about new and fascinating subjects like cervical mucous, post-coital positioning for maximal conception chances, and like me, these women were obsessed. And best of all, we kept each other's spirits up, helping to fend off the infertility depression that it would have been so easy to succumb to.
