RETHINKING - (IN)FERTILITY

• Planning and preparing to have children can be an exciting process and the individuals or couple often have some thoughts, images and expectations about what their family will be like, the number of children they will like to have and how they will raise the children.  Fertility is, therefore, seen as a given!

• In a number of cases, however, people found that life do put huddles in their life journeys and expectations. These huddles often threaten to  change the course and strategies for fulfilling their fundamental desires and expectations for having children.  One of such huddles is infertility. It is therefore important that we start engaging in the talk and rethinking the concepts of fertility and infertility.
  

WHAT IS INFERTILITY

Infertility is described as: 

the inability to conceive  after 2 years of unprotected vaginal sexual intercourse by a woman of reproductive age. 

Infertility is one of the few life conditions that have the propensity to cast the shade of doubt and helplessness into all areas of human function. Though infertility has this over-powering impact on the people affected, it is not always at the fore front of health anxieties until the diagnosis is made or the couple attempt to have children and fail to conceive. 

The diagnosis of infertility often comes as a shock and downward spiralling challenge. Unlike other challenging life events, which may have a clear resolution, infertility is uniquely distressing because it can last for many years and the outcome is uncertain.

Because fertility is commonly seen as a given, people tend not to pay attention to the things that can help or hinder their fertility ability.