Why I Raise Awareness of Infertility | Guest Post


I didn’t know what effect telling my story would have, on the way I felt about my infertility journey.  It was a chance I took – going live with our problems through a blog could have made it much worse!  It didn’t though, it helped.  It helped in ways I never imagined it could, just by sharing my story and not having to hide everything and live a secret life.





The impact of Infertility on mental health is often overlooked.  A study of 488 women concluded that
women with infertility felt as anxious or depressed as those diagnosed with cancer, hypertension or recovering from a heart attack*.


Infertility can be a lonely and isolating journey.  It’s not just the schedule of treatment that stops you being sociable.  You’re exhausted; you can’t drink so you can’t let your hair down. Friends are making plans for the summer and you can’t think beyond egg collection.  Friends with children are hard to be around, they have what you desperately want and pregnant friends are a definite no. You’re probably trying to do it all in secret.  Making excuses to leave work, doing injections in restaurants and public toilets. You feel like the only person in the world trying to go through it, when in reality 1 in 6 couples will need assisted conception.


Society still see’s infertility as a taboo subject; we are made to feel like we shouldn’t talk about it, exacerbating the mental health issues surrounding this journey.  Many sufferers struggle on, cycle to cycle, trying desperately to keep recovering from the hopeful highs, and the crashing lows and grief, with no one to talk to and no support network to help.


I wanted to share my story by way of a blog, to let others know that they are not alone and that there are other people on this journey.  My blog is six months old now and in addition to telling my story, I felt like I wanted to do more for the community.  Many people don’t want to write a blog or share their journey in that way, which of course is fine.  But they still need someone to talk to and that’s where Fertility Network UK comes in.  FNUK call it ‘peer support’.  The support comes from someone who has been through their own infertility journey and may well still be on it.  Someone who can understand the thoughts and feelings they are having, the very real fears and anxieties.  Someone who can listen with an understanding, non-judgemental ear.  Not to advise or give medical information, but just to be a friend who can relate to the highs and lows of infertility and to show that other people have been there too.


I will be forever grateful for the support I have received from family, friends and the infertility community as a whole.  If I can give something back to that community by helping even one person feel less alone by being a peer support, then I will have achieved something.  Infertility is still very taboo, charities like Fertility Network UK are so important and I am honoured to be able to help in a small way through them and to continue to raise awareness through my personal account of our journey on my blog.












About the Author


Jessica Jones // Infertility and Life

My name is Jessica Jones, I'm 38 and my husband and I have been dealing with infertility for the past three years.  Together with the grief we've also had to deal with during this time, life has been difficult. I use writing to help me process what's happening around me and make sense of stuff.  So whilst pretending Christmas didn't exist in Thailand in December 2016, I decided that I wanted to start writing a blog.  It is our story of Infertility...and Life.




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