Infertility Sucks

National Infertility Awareness Week is this week. I bet you didn't know that infertility affects 1 in 8 people. Chances are pretty high that you know someone that is struggling with infertility.

I wish I didn't know that. I wish I didn't know people, plural, who are currently suffering. I wish I didn't know first hand that those 2 pink lines can end in heartbreak instead of joy. I wish it didn't take some couples years, and sometimes decades to conceive. I wish that nobody had to experience the grief of being told to "just relax" or that "things happen for a reason". I wish adoption was not such a high cost for those that are unable to conceive their own children and leaves them with the tough decision of whether or not they will extend their family.

If you know someone who is experiencing infertility, just be there for them. They need your support more than anything. From the words of someone much wiser than me who has unfortunately experienced infertility first hand, don't tell them to relax. Don't minimize the problem by telling them that at least they get to sleep late or travel. Don't say there are worse that could happen. Please please don't say maybe they aren't meant to be parents. Don't play doctor, they already know the problem and the options from actual doctors who hopefully know far more than you do. Just be there for them and remember them on Mother's Day, even if they don't have any living babies, like so many Mother's out there.