Infertility Myths

Isn’t it odd how the whole infertility story seems to invite superstitious stories and old wives’ tales? Everybody has an opinion – your great aunt, the shop attendant, the taxi driver – and infertility myths abound. Everyone seems to know precisely how to overcome your infertility issues and the advice you receive is typically vaguely supportive at best or exceptionally thoughtless and incorrect at worst.

Well meaning relatives might inform you that it’s your imagination and you should just relax and you’ll have a baby. Are you convinced that you don’t want a baby too much? On the other hand, what if, buried in the depths of your unconscious mind, you don’t really want to have a baby? May that be it? Maybe I’m mistaken, but if not welcoming a pregnancy caused infertility, then surely there wouldn’t be so many unwanted pregnancies.
Other family members, perhaps his family, may be tempted to blame it on the woman, because infertility is the woman’s problem in the end, and we don’t want to believe that perhaps he inherited his low sperm count from us. The reality of the matter is that problems with the man’s fertility form just about 30% of all infertility cases, with female infertility forming another 30%. Non-specific infertility and instances where both parties have issues make up the final third. No shifting the blame on this one guys.
Many people lie to blame the contraceptive pill for infertility. Blaming the pill for infertility is usually based on purely subjective evidence, rather than on something substantial. Despite its bad rep, the pill doesn’t cause infertility, but it may conceal any fertility issues that already exist. You’re certain to hear the one about someone’s uncle’s sister who got pregnant right after adopting, although I’m certain there are lots and lots of stories of couples who didn’t have a baby after adopting. Those stories aren’t nearly as much fun to tell.
A standard remark that really gets on my nerves is the one where someone, apparently trying to be helpful, remarks that perhaps you weren’t destined to have babies of your own, it just isn’t your destiny, and ‘everything happens for a purpose’ you know, just wait, it will all make you stronger. How do they get a hotline to ‘Discover your Essential Destiny’ and you don’t? Being informed that you are doing your part to decrease overpopulation doesn’t make it any easier either, no matter what the greenies say.

There are so many infertility myths that it may be difficult at times to separate the reality from the fantasy, because often there is a nugget of truth in those old wives’ tales. When you come across these infertility myths you just need to be sure to do your research so you can set those meddling old aunts straight and possibly even get some information that may actually help you.

Here is more information on Infertility Information. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Infertility.