I have been wondering if I would feel such an urgency to conceive a child, if say, I was twenty-one and not thirty-four years old. I definitely feel my biological clock ticking everyday. At twenty-one I wanted to have a family. I had always had irregular cycles, but thought nothing of the effect it would have on me when I got older. Now I am second guessing NOT second guessing my fertile future when I was that young. Now I am thirty-four scurrying from one Doctor to another trying to find out what is wrong with me. It seems once they rule out one thing they are on to another. Meanwhile, my head is spinning, my emotions are out of control- and all I can hear in my ear is…….tick,tick,tick.

I feel tired lately. Alot more than I have felt in a long time. I cannot stop feeling a little down on myself and my life because I am not being able to have children. It affects everything in my life right now. I am trying to keep myself busy. This one thing in my life is making me feel that all of my accomplishments are failures. I have hope that on the other side of all of this I will be a happier person. I am truly trying to focus on things in my life that will bring accomplishment. I try to make myself feel better by exercising, eating right and going shopping. However, I feel like I am one of those shallow people in life that just focuses on themselves. What else am I to do? Another week starts for me tomorrow- I will go through the same routine as I have for the past three years. I am in a rut, and I am fighting hard to get out of it. I am reminded of what one of the greatest philosophers of our time Joseph Campbell said, ” Follow your Bliss.” I am going to fight damn hard right now to follow mine

For most men having a semen analysis is an emasculating process. They feel very frightened by the aspect of an inadequate sperm count and or motility. Our society has built a taboo on men speaking on such matters. Because it interferes with the archaic belief that a man is here to pro-create, and if he can’t do that he has lost his masculinity. I do not believe if my partner had a low sperm count or motility that I would think less of him as a man. However, there is a stigma  around men who have fathered children, and I believe the stigma is between the sexes. If men believe another man is the cause of infertility they see weakness in him. Women feel the same about a woman who is barren. “She must be doing something wrong if she cannot conceive and bare a child.” Instead of offering support they feel they need to offer advice. That is what really upsets me. When you have lost a loved one and you are at their funeral is it appropriate for people to make comments and suggestions on how you should cope with your loss. In my opinion that would be a great faux pau. When a loss in life occurs it is acceptable in American culture to say, “I am sorry.” I would be much more accepting and non threatened by a person if when they decide to cross the boundary of rudeness by asking me if I have children and I say no I am having a problem with that- they do not interject the secrets of how they conceived their child. They simply say “I am sorry.” And leave it at that.