No one ever talks about infertility and what happens if you are unable to have a baby. For many years you welcome ‘Aunt Flo’, all while keeping pharmacies in business. But no one discusses the disappointment and grief when she continues to visit you every month when you are ready.…

I have always wanted to be a mum and I thought I’d meet someone in my twenties, get married and have children. However, I found myself at 36, single and childless. People’s comments were: ‘The clock is ticking’, ‘You will meet someone’, ‘Lots of people your age don’t have children’.…

People come to adoption for a lot of different reasons. For an increasing number, it’s their number one choice because of concerns for the limitations of our planet to provide for a growing population. Others have cultural or religious motivations, are in a same-sex relationship or are building on a…

I decided to take this path after not having met anyone I saw a long-term future with for a long time, and really wanting to be a mum. I wasn’t willing to settle for just anyone in order to have a child. I used to joke through my 20s that…

When I teach school children, I concentrate on the menstrual cycle (periods and the fertile window), PCOS, endometriosis, female and male fertility decline, infertility, and menopause. I make it clear that some of these topics are relevant whether they want children or not, and that these issues may affect boys,…

Where to start? For me, the obvious starting point is the end. And what is more powerful than the words we used to sign-off for the very last time from our fertility blog: “So this is where our story both starts and ends: What an incredible ending it is, and…

As I type, I am waiting for my bleed after another failed round of IVF. This time, we’d gone from high as kites, to a thud back to gloomy reality in a matter of days. Finally, we’d had a (faint but) positive pregnancy test, though sadly, our joy was short…

My story begins 10 years ago. My wife and I had been trying naturally to have children for over a year and we had accepted things may not happen as naturally as we hoped due to my wife’s PCOS. After several month of tests for my wife, the fertility clinic…

It was in May 2020 that I attended my first HimFertility meeting. I was feeling overwhelmed, lost, alone and unsure of how to react to the news that I had two nil sperm tests, a meaningless doctor’s appointment and a urologist scan that showed no physical issues. What next? I…

My favourite sport is rugby. A game of big hits and end-to-end tries, mud, grit and demands both physical and emotional. And so it was that I found myself part of a passionate crowd singing ‘Flower of Scotland’ at Murrayfield stadium at the recent Autumn International Rugby series. But aside…

I am very lucky that after five years which included six rounds of Clomid, eleven rounds of IVF, fourteen embryos and four miscarriages, we did get our miracle baby boy. Now four years down the line we are still trying to complete our family. I have had another nine rounds…

Serving or being a partner of someone serving within the UK’s Armed Forces is a unique, rewarding, but challenging lifestyle. It’s also a job which impacts our family lives due to the posting cycle requiring us to regularly move across the country and overseas, as well as significant periods of…

I had three rounds of ICSI over a three-year period, with a total of seven embryo transfers – all were unsuccessful. This extremely distressing time in my life was made far worse because of the lack of support from my employer. (For most of my fertility treatment I worked as…

‘We got married in April 2016 and planned to start a family soon after. We had both forged our way through our careers to get to where we wanted to be and, although nothing in life is ever easy, everything we had planned and wanted to do had so far…

Fertility Network UK’s survey of approaching 1,300 fertility patients in the UK reveals the devastating toll infertility wreaks on people’s mental health, relationships, finances and career. Released at the start of National Fertility Awareness Week 2022, the findings also highlight the lack of information provided by GPs and the limited…

One of the guiding principles of our work at Fertility Network UK has been our belief that everyone should have equal access to fertility treatment, no matter where they happen to live. We would like to see the guidance set by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)…

Fertility, or the lack of it is not something you learn about or discuss much in your twenties. You believe life will work out the way it does in books and films, get a job, meet somebody, fall in love, get married, have a baby. A fairytale. What happens when…

National Fertility Awareness Week 31 Oct – 4 Nov 2022 is your week. That’s why, during the week, we’d like you to tell us and the world • how you are feeling • what you are experiencing • or what needs to change to improve your situation The challenge is…

  National Fertility Awareness Week 31 October - 4 November 2022 is just one month away. Make sure to catch these highlights, including a major, new survey revealing: • the emotional impact of infertility and fertility treatment, • the impact of juggling fertility treatment and employment, and • the crippling…

Good news: a new, large study shows there are no concerning effects of fertility treatment on children’s development. The global research, which tracked 158,000 IVF-conceived children from birth to adulthood, found small differences in the growth, weight, and body fat of IVF children reduced with age. Commenting on the study,…