Listen Up! It’s National Infertility Awareness Week.

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Listen up!  It’s National Infertility Awareness Week, a week that is so important in my life and the lives of my beautiful patients.  This year’s theme, “Listen Up!” is a call to action for a multitude of interested parties:

• For people struggling with infertility, it is a call to do what must be done, to treat infertility sooner rather than later. Avoid regrets by taking action.  It is also imperative to talk openly about the physical, emotional, and financial difficulties that come with crappiness of infertility. Together, we can beat infertility shame! #ListenUp
• For couples struggling with infertility, get on the same page about what to do. This may mean getting to a specially-trained therapist who understands the emotional rollercoaster and medical issues of infertility.  You can find me and other therapists through the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.   Or you can talk with me in the office or online on videoconference.  Your relationship will be strengthened by working together.  #ListenUp
• For people who love someone with infertility, it is a call to action to learn and listen with a full heart, not to offer quick fixes or religious advice. Ask your friend or family member how they are.  Hug them when they cry. Drive your loved one to an appointment.  #ListenUp
• For OB/GYNs, it is a call to action to refer patients to fertility clinics quickly, especially if they are close to or older than 40. When your patients get pregnant with the appropriate fertility treatment, they will come back to you, with a grateful heart. #ListenUp
• For fertility doctors and OB/GYN’s, it is a call to action to refer your patients to Resolve and to specially-trained therapists before they are crying in your office. Thinking about your patients in a holistic way will buy you a lot of brownie points with your patients. #ListenUp
• For insurance companies, it is a call to action to change the ways in which you disenfranchise your subscribers from receiving the MEDICAL treatment they need and deserve. It’s 2017.  Infertility is not a desirable treatment, it is an illness process requiring medical treatment.  Here’s the truth: Fertility treatment doesn’t cost you that much. It is worth gold to your subscribers.  #ListenUp
• For legislators, it is a call to action to recognize that reproduction and parenting happen in many ways. Enact laws to recognize and support gestational surrogacy and to update parentage laws that recognize parenting through gestational surrogacy.  #ListenUp

We humans do best when we have a purpose and take action.  Listen Up!  It’s National Infertility Awareness Week.  #NIAW