Saturday, July 10, 2010

why we need IF advocacy

i'll keep it brief today..

here's a feature story from the Was.hington Post this week:

"Smug Rich Lady Puts Babies on Ice While She Does More IMPORTANT Things"

(okay, so i slightly revised the title.. hee hee)

here's my letter to the editor:

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Your July 6th piece, “By freezing embryos..”, reinforces the false assumption that fertility and youth are synonymous. Infertility is not a life choice of foolish women who wait too long to have children. Infertility is a disease with many underlying causes. Many women in their 20’s have reproductive organs scarred and twisted by endometriosis or previous infection.

Rather than educating your audience on the reality of couples struggling with infertility, you ran an article that belittles them and suggests that they are chumps for resorting to “Desperation IVF”. My husband and I spent years in fertility treatment - apparently I wasn’t clever enough to avoid having polycystic ovaries, another common cause of infertility.

Why does this matter? Because in most states fertility treatment is not covered by insurance – it’s considered an elective procedure. If we recognized infertility as a real medical issue and not poor planning, then treatment wouldn’t be such a traumatic and expensive ordeal. Our society makes many infertile couples literally choose between having children and buying a house to put them in. IVF is not a hobby for spoiled rich people – it is a medical necessity for couples who deserve to have the life that others take for granted.
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just keepin' it real, girls!

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