Infertility is a four-letter word

Earlier today I was sitting here staring at the big orange "Publish Post" button, contemplating the consequences of a trigger-happy finger... I've put up just about every excuse in the book for NOT starting this blog.


It's not that I'm embarrassed. I know we're not the only couple in the world going through this. And I'm an avid champion and user of social media (blogs included), but this is a really, really personal topic. And most of the time, I feel like it's really not anyone's business but me and my husbands (and our mothers)...

However, I think I know deep down, that if I'm going to get through this, if we're going to get through this, I need to blog about it.

I don't mean to go all Carrie Bradshaw here, but I watched Sex and the City religiously during the brief time I lived in New York, and some of what Carrie wrote really stuck with me. This quote in particular seems relevant to my life right now...

"When real people fall down in life, they get right back up and keep walking."

So, that's what Jay and I are doing. We're taking another step.

Today is day one of a new cycle and a new chance for us to become parents. And although I may sound upbeat about this whole "adventure" I'm still questioning why anyone would consciously decide to have kids.

When getting pregnant doesn't just "happen" and procreation suddenly becomes a project with a budget, a schedule and a timeline, well, it makes you stop and think.

You may not know it, but 1 in 8 couples of reproductive age suffer from infertility (according to The National Infertility Association). Jay and I are one of those couples. And we've spent the last year trying to conceive (abbreviated as TTC). We've spent more money on treatments -- Don't get me started on that -- we could've gone on at least one trip around the world. But we didn't. We chose to spend our money trying to have a baby.

I've had more intimate encounters with the ultrasound wand in the last year than I care to recount. It's never even offered to take me to dinner!

We've switched clinics and doctors twice. Luckily, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the doctor we have now. He answers every single crazy e-mail that I send him. Even on weekends!

We've laughed, we've cried.

We've named our follicles.

Infertility is a roller coaster ride of stress, hope, and often, disappointment. But I've decided I'd rather talk about it than not.

I have a disease called Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (or PCOS). It's actually a pretty "popular" disease and if you really, really, really want to, you can read all about it on Wikipedia.

We're open to answering all your questions about PCOS and infertility, we only ask one thing, that you read RESOLVE's Infertility Etiquette guide BEFORE you hit us up.

I'm going to continue to keep the TTC me and the "regular" me separate. But if you're interested in following our story, you can always come back to this blog. I decided to call it "Stork on Strike" because, well, that's what it feels like, like our stork has gone on strike. And dammit, if you've seen him, could you please ask him to report back for duty. We could really use him about now.