Call it Cringe, But I Say Infertility Awareness Week Still Matters.

Last week, I was at a mom conference where I met several other women who have twins (in case you didn’t know — Rescripted was founded by two amazing twin moms and I happen to be one as well!). 

What struck me about this experience, aside from just the sheer volume of other moms of multiples? Some of the follow-up questions we received. “Were they all IVF twins?” one person asked. And listen: I’m really happy we’re talking about these things…but that still feels to me like a strange, slightly invasive question. Because while normalization of these issues is really important, so is sensitivity around them. 

Some of the moms shared that they’d had their babies via IVF, while I added that mine were born via IUI. What came after that were lots of follow up questions about what these processes actually entail, with lots of comments along the lines of “oh, I had no idea about this!”.

I get that most people don’t understand the intricacies of infertility. But when you’re in a room full of mothers, women who have been through pregnancy and postpartum, (though not necessarily infertility, of course), the lack of larger cultural awareness around what infertility truly looks like is a bit staggering.

Increasing infertility awareness is so important. When you actually go through infertility, the amount of information that is thrown your way is incredible. The mental load of it is incredibly heavy, and when I was going through it, I kept thinking “thank god I came into this experience with a base of knowledge — this would have been even more overwhelming if I hadn't.” 

That base of knowledge didn’t come from public awareness of infertility issues (because that doesn’t exist), it came from working as a journalist who wrote about reproductive health. Thanks to that, I didn’t have to learn all about this wild testing process, all my treatment options, and about a million acronyms on the fly. I could just sit in the incredible emotional overwhelm of it all as opposed to feeling like I had to take detailed notes at every appointment.

But the value of infertility awareness isn’t just about serving people who will one day go through infertility, it’s also about cultivating more sensitivity around these issues, which is so desperately needed. 

I know a lot of people roll their eyes at things like "Infertility Awareness Week”. But here’s the thing: Awareness campaigns can work. See: How incredibly far we’ve come where infertility awareness goes.

Ten years ago, nobody really talked about infertility at all. Now, we’re in a place where a room full of mothers can meet for the first time and openly talk about what it really took for them to have their families. We’re in a place where celebrities are openly sharing their stories. We’re in a place where sites Rescripted exist.

We’re getting somewhere. We’re just not there yet.