In honor of National Infertility Awareness Week, I want to encourage you to expose yourself. No, not in the illegal way, expose your infertility. You'll be surprised how great it will feel.
I was too chicken to say anything about infertility on Facebook until I got pregnant. And as soon as I did, I immediately got two messages from different friends who were also struggling. It was nice to feel like I gave a couple of old friends some comfort and hope.
While dealing with infertility, I reached out quite a bit both in person and on the internet. That support was invaluable in keeping me mostly sane throughout the process. When I had a really bad day, I came here to vent and felt a little bit better.
When I went through IVF, I "knew" dozens of other people who had done the same and it wasn't so scary.
If you are dealing with infertility yourself, reach out. It will definitely benefit you and it will also benefit some people you didn't even know were hurting.
If fertility has not been an issue for you, but you'd like to show support, post this:
1 in 8 women deal with infertility in their lifetime. If you are currently struggling, I want you to know that I support you, that I understand how difficult and alienating it is, and that you can talk to me and I won't just tell you to adopt or say "it'll happen." I'll just listen. #NIAW #resolve.org
Can you hash tag a website? I'm not twitter-savvy yet...those were officially my first two hash tags.
Post this message or just say it to a friend you know is struggling or post your own.
Expose yourself or offer to listen. It will ease the pain.
amen.
ReplyDeletexxo
So true. And also so important. The more who raise their voices and share their stories, the less taboo infertility/loss become. Thank you for this post.
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