Trying To Conceive Over 40, It Can Be Funny
Ok, I know there's nothing funny about the heartbreak, pain, anger, and frustration associated with infertilty. But, if you think about everything you go through and you stand back and view it from an objective viewpoint, there are some funny things that happen along the way.Here's a few from my own experience:
- One month when I knew I was ovulating (and intercourse was mandatory), my husband fell asleep early that night. I practically had yell, sing, and annoy him long enough to wake him up. Talk about a less than pleasurable experience...I must commend him on performing on demand.
-When we were going through fertility treatments, my husband had to make his "donation" at the fertility clinic. The "donation" rooms had a back exit door for privacy (and a box where the samples should have been left), but some other guy comes out the front door carrying his "sample" to the receptionist. Everybody in the waiting room starting snickering (hey, they'd all been in there too!)
-When we were going through fertility treatments and my husband had to give me a shot at 8:00 every night, it was very interesting when my husband's cousins came in from out of town. We invited them over for dinner but when 8:00 came rolling around, we had to disappear upstairs with needles and medication bottles out of the refrigerator. We made up some totally ridiculous story about how my cat was sick and we had to give her shots. I wonder if anyone bought that line?
I could go on...but one thing I learned is that even though infertility is so stressful and crazy, you do get through it. I had to learn how to keep plugging along even in the most hopeless of situations. Laugh whenever you can. It's very cathartic and it actually has been shown to lower stress and strengthen the immune system.