Let’s not add to the hurt - Understanding infertility

In a culture where unfettered and spectacular fecundity was for so very long considered an essential expression of virility and something approaching civic and religious obligation a childless couple were often regarded in a peculiar, almost pitying light.

What for many couples was a defining disappointment became something even more hurtful when the unsought absence of children was used to pigeon hole them in a society that very often seemed awash with children. What a pity it is then that some of these uncomprehending attitudes survive today.

Couples often exhausted emotionally and financially by their efforts to use science to conceive a child can feel isolated and misunderstood. That so much of this hurt is unintended, social collateral damage if you will, just makes a difficult situation even more frustrating. These issues, this unintended cruelty, will be discussed at tomorrow’s National Infertility Support and Information Group annual conference.