Building a Family
Helping Couples and Families Cope with Infertility
As the seasons change, we are reminded of the changes in life and family building. For heterosexual couples facing infertility, transitioning from IVF to third-party reproduction-engaging a donor or surrogate to conceive, or for queer couples navigating infertility challenges, the pursuit of family building can evoke a profound sense of loss for what was once hoped…
Read MoreSeparate Infertility From Your Child’s Donor Story
Donor conception is used by people who are single, queer couples, and people with a medical issue or infertility. For those in the last group, using donor conception can be particularly difficult. Often grief, loss, and a history of failed treatments are all part of their experience. As a result, disclosure to family, and friends, and the…
Read MoreOpenness in Donor Conception is Essential
Recently, actress Kerry Washington disclosed that she was conceived with the assistance of a sperm donor. This news put the topic of disclosure back into the public eye, and helped to continue to raise awareness about the importance of disclosure to donor conceived children. Ms. Washington’s parents had kept her genetic origins a secret until…
Read MoreThe annual conference of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine
In 2019, I presented my research at the annual conference of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. One of my findings was that 98% of the same sex male patients I surveyed desired a child from each of their genetics. That’s an overwhelming percentage! The same sex female couples with whom I met did not…
Read More2 important donor conception issues
For many people using donor conception to have a child, but particularly for those who have struggled with infertility, using donor conception to build a family can feel upsetting in many ways. Two of the main issues faced by many people are #1, the emotional difficulty of not being genetically linked to one’s child and…
Read MoreWhat does Sara Blakely have to do with donor conception?
If you don’t know Sara Blakely, she is the inventor of Spanx. She created a company, now valued at 1.2 billion dollars, with five thousand dollars and determination inspired by an audio tape (yes back in the day) of Wayne Dyer declaring that anyone can be a “no limit person”. Sara regularly posts her ideas…
Read MoreWhy Pride is important for you 🏳️🌈 ✌️
According to a Johns Hopkins study, people who had a family history of heart disease and also had a positive outlook were one-third less likely to have a heart attack (or another cardiovascular event) within five to twenty-five years than those with a more negative outlook. Does this mean you need to be chipper all…
Read MoreIs family building making you small?
A wise guru named Sadhguru teaches us that we can either think in survival mode in order to try to limit the problems that may come our way, or think in expansion mode and try to stretch ourselves to be more joyful and make our lives fuller. When you are building your family, thinking in…
Read MoreAre you spending more time in your future or in your past?
This question is an easy one for most of us. When were upset about something, we often spend more time in the past. We relive something that hurt us or try to fix it in our minds. And yet it has passed. Our feelings don’t always make sense and yet we may find ourselves repeating…
Read MoreDon’t betray your heart
I believe that if you want to have a family, you are meant to have a family, and not having that family is a betrayal of your heart. If you get caught up in the struggle to have a family, and ascribe negative meaning to that struggle, it can take you down the wrong path.…
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