The media is full of stories about fertility these days. One recent headline I saw was how fertility is decreasing around the world. Is it really decreasing like they are saying in the media?
If you look at the actual statistics based on what the governments publish around the world overall baby rates appear to be decreasing. However this decrease is mostly due to a decrease in teen pregnancy rates in some countries and a decrease in the 20-24 year old age bracket.
Let's see what the other age brackets are doing;
25-29 (staying the same)
30-34 (slight increase or staying the same in some countries)
35-39 (increasing in most countries and has been for more than 5 years in many)
40-44 year olds (increasing and in some cases have tripled since the 90's)
So the media looks for the best way they think they can grab your attention with fear based headlines and then spin a story to get you to keep reading. But the truth of the matter is, and I have said this many times over the years, the media does not always represent the truth. The truth often does not sell papers if it's not sensational enough. In other words be careful about what you read or hear in the media.
Even with the ads about IVF clinics, doctors, any health care professionals and this also includes supplements as well, one must not get caught up in the hype. Because who is writing this info for ads? A hired ad person is running the ads and their job is not necessarily to tell the truth, but to put an attention grabbing spin on the information presented to them to make you seek out the product or service of the company they have been hired to write the ad for.
So I guess what I am trying to say is that you are constantly bombarded with fear based or even guilt based advertising to get you to take action. Therefore these days it is a persons own responsibility to assess the information heard in the media that causes concern, with a reputable source who can help discern what is true for YOU, i.e. for your particular situation.
Take a moment to ask yourself this about the choices that you have made regarding your fertility. Have I been making decisions based on fear (much of which is based on what may not be true) or based on what makes most sense to me with the experience that I have had and the information that I have gathered from sources that I trust.
I see so many patients fearful of missing out that they don't give their bodies time to prepare even though that is exactly what has worked for thousands of couples before them. And by doing this they are creating the very thing they are trying to avoid. Preparation over time contributes to improvement over time and many times increases your chances of creating a viable pregnancy.
But I don't have time, I hear you say. That belief may be based on your AMH, FSH, age, etc but AMH for example and your fertility is based on theory not fact (there hasn't been a 25 year study looking at womens' AMH over time and how many children they had during that time). What about my age? I was told I am running out of eggs or they are not good quality.
Honestly at this point most clinics have no good way of knowing whether your eggs are good quality or not. Ask your doctor whether they can identify whether an egg has chromosomal issues (or sp for that matter) just by looking at it under the microscopes they typically use in their clinic.
And even if they look as though they are poor quality, that quality may be influenced by the medication they are using to increase the eggs rate of growth and/or stop the egg from getting reabsorbed back into the body like most of the eggs you make do each month if they weren't mature enough to be released.
Time and time again these paramters that you base your decisions on are proven to be inconsistent in determining your results. Yet it's the fear based on the beliefs you have decided to take on from other sources that motivates you to act. Think about it. Were you always fearful of NOT becoming pregnant? Probably not. Many ppl spend time fearing the opposite or not having any fear because they were on the pill. So somewhere along the line you create the fear based on your experiences and you reinforced beliefs about yourself that other ppl told you, such as I am infertile. But like I say on my How to Get Off the Emotional Roller Coaster CD, if you are producing eggs and have a uterus and he is producing sp, you are not infertile, just maybe a bit challenged in the fertility department.
Also remember that so many ppl believe that women are born with x number of eggs and run out of them even though this is being shown not to be true by the work of Dr. Jonathon Tilly
So now and in the future, I encourage you to step back from the fear and make your decisions based on what makes most sense to you. See through the hype of the media or the negative beliefs of others and focus on finding out what you really truly feel congruent about and allow these thoughts and beliefs to guide you to your next step on this often challenging journey. Do whatever you can to help you create balance in your life and nurture your body and mind to allow yourself hopefully someday soon, to nurture the little life that you long for.
