Canadian Infertility Awareness Week is well underway.
I can’t stress enough how happy I am for the resources that have been provided to us through Fertility Matters Canada.
My husband and I were originally diagnosed with unexplained infertility in March of 2014 after almost 18 months of trying to conceive naturally. We took some extra time before deciding to proceed down the assisted fertility route and this came with its own set of challenges. You see, a small part of me thought that maybe somewhere in the two years that we “stopped trying” that it would “just happen”. You know, the things all those people tell you about when you stop trying and it just magically happens? Ya, that. Well that wasn’t the way it went for us so starting the process all over again from the beginning brought on a lot of mixed feelings especially not knowing if any of it was going to work.
In August of 2016, I decided to start a blog.
A place where I could write it all out. The good, the bad and the ugly. I would share this blog privately with my closest friends and family so they could understand just what it was we were going through. It was also around that time that I started to look for resources to help me get through what was about to come.
After a few google searches I stumbled upon the Fertility Matters Canada website and started looking in to some of the resources they offered. It didn’t take long before I came across a mind-body healing fertility group and joined for the fall sessions. Through that support group I met so many fantastic women who had one extra thing in common with me, they were also struggling to start a family. I took away so much from my 6 weeks with the group and even some new friendships.
Fast forward to February of this year.
Fertility Matters asked me to blog for them. I was thrilled. I knew what a difference I had already made through my writing to friends and family that hopefully I could reach out to someone else in need. Someone like me. It was around that time that we were starting our first medicated cycle of IUI so the timing was great.
I knew it would mean my personal blog would go public for the entire world wide web to see.
I was also ready for that. We struggled in silence for so long. I remember how great it felt the first time we openly talked about our journey. It was like a weight was lifted from our shoulders. Since sharing our story, I have had many women and men reach out to me to let me know that they are in the same situation. I have offered support and received support from women that I know, women that are close to me or my family that I had no idea had struggled too.
Whether you want to be publicly open or not, my message is that there are resources out there to help. Resources that have been a saving grace to us through all of this. I am really looking forward to tonight’s Fertility Matters Canada Paint Nite in support of CIAW. Having just found out our second IUI was unsuccessful it will be nice to get out and support a cause that is so important to us.
We are 1 in 6.
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Michelle L., alongroadtobaby.wordpress.com
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