National Infertility Awareness Week

April 21 – 27 marks National Infertility Awareness Week.

As I began to think about this week, I wanted to start with a place that would let you all see my own story. As I perused through all my posts on the topic, I realized I really don’t have a story, but rather several posts on infertility in general.

I wondered why.

I mostly wondered why and how I went from “Power of Positive Thinking” to “The End of This Road. The Beginning of: a gutsy girl.”

National Infertility Awareness Week

I re-read “The End of This Road,” and I got chills. That was when “a gutsy girl” truly began, and in hindsight, it could not have been born at a better time in my life.

But back when I wrote that post, on April 11, 2012, I was not ready to tell my story.

I was ready to know and accept that Gutsy no longer stood only for my IBD (Colitis), but also now another faux pas women’s issue: infertility.

It was faux pas a year ago; faux pas it still is.

Just as women sit in silence about issues that lie within the gut, so do they sit still in silence about issues that lie within the system where beautiful children come from.

Ladies are supposed to be ladies.

The problem with this is twofold:

As a society, the things we don’t talk about are the things that are misunderstood and/or uneducated about
Silence causes distress and anxiety; women get depressed, they feel alone and stress runs wild

I will dedicate Monday through Thursday of this week to National Infertility Awareness Week, but not to give you facts and information about infertility as a whole.

….because I think it’s important.

….because I’m happy to tell mine if it means someone reading this finds comfort in their silence.

….because telling my story means another hurdle for healing I’ll cross.

….because I’m Gutsy.

Xox,
SKH