Listening but...

Sometimes people listen – but don’t actually hear. I was discussing with a fellow infertile (for which you can read also failed IVFer) at work last week about some rubbish that was going on in my head. We got round to discussing our holiday plans for the summer and how M & I could afford a proper holiday for the first time in years because there was no IVF this year! She said that the previous day they’d been discussing babies in the staff room at lunchtime (and you wonder why I avoid the place), as a colleague had brought her baby girl in.

One of the younger Maths teachers commented that ‘so-and-so (who happens to be a friend of mine who’s been to my school on supply) spent £12,000 on having her babies’.

‘Yes’ agreed my fellow infertile, ‘but at least she’s got two babies for her £12,000. I spent that and got nothing.’

‘I would never, ever spend that much on trying for a baby. I would live without first.’ Came the response. If I’d been there I might have been tempted to say – that you don’t know what you’ll do until you have to take those decisions.

I wish I could really educate people about what being infertile is about. Not just the financial aspect but the physical and emotional side of it. I have some amazing friends who have walked this path along side me and know a lot of it. But even they don’t see the whole picture. The nights of crying, the way it saps you of energy, confidence, and most importantly hope. But to educate people I’d have to be a little braver about shouting out about it – it’s still after all this time hidden from a lot of people – mostly because they have no need to know!