I'M HERE, I'M INFERTILE, GET USE TO IT!

I originally was hesitant about starting this blog and making our struggle public knowledge by being so open on Facebook and with our friends and family. Even now, though we have been "out of the TTC closet" for awhile, when I post things PCOS/ infertility related stuff on Facebook I worry how it will be received. I wonder if people are annoyed by it (though I am annoyed by people 24/7 baby updates), or if it is going to met with ignorant comments such as "just have a lot of sex everyday & it will happen" or "y'all are young give it time" or "take one of my kids for a day, you'll change your mind about wanting kids " to which I say "sure I'll take one off your hands permanently  if they inconvenience you that much".

However, recently I have received reassurance that I made the right decision when I decided to make our struggle public. In the last several weeks I have had 4 ladies message me with questions about TTC & infertility. All of these women were at different points in their TTC journey, one is just starting the process and the other 3 are 6 months -2 years in. But none of these ladies have many ,if any, other women in their life that they know of that are TTC or dealing with infertility.

My question is WHY!? Infertility affects 1 in 7 couples, so chances are that all those women know  several other people that are struggling with IF, but don't realize it since most couples struggle in silence. Why is TTC and infertility something we feel we need to hide? Why is it such a taboo topic?

 I know that infertility is by far the hardest thing I have ever dealt with. As a woman, you feel like it is suppose to come naturally, it is what we were made to do. So when it doesn't happen naturally, we feel like we have failed and of course want to hide our failure. Why must we be afraid to say things about infertility & TTC because it might be met with ignorance? Well I'm going to make a bold statement here, and it's just my opinion so do what you want with it. We have to to scared of  the ignorance surrounding infertility BECAUSE we are too scared to speak up.That's right, our infertility IS NOT our fault...but when we allow those around us to remain ignorant because we remain silent...their ignorance IS our fault. Silence breeds misunderstanding & ignorance, and that is true with any condition, situation, or issue.

We need to speak up and be open and honest about infertility. When we do we can finally realize that we are not alone in our pain,and support each other. We can teach to those people that are ignorant about the subject how to be compassionate and supportive to friends and family that may be infertile. We can teach them that infertility is a medical issue that "just relaxing" or "getting drunk and having sex" will not fix. We can hopefully soften hearts of parents that have been blessed with children easily or even on accident, but view them as burdens, to make them realize how lucky they truly are. We can assure other women that have been dealt this horrible card that they are not failures. We can raise awareness for more research which will hopefully lead to cures for common infertility causing diseases and  awareness for better infertility coverage on insurance. We can make 'Infertility Awareness' just as common as 'Breast Cancer Awareness'...but we cannot be afraid to SPEAK UP!