loud, proud infertile club gets a male member
Posted: June 5, 2007 Filed under: Uncategorized 10 Comments »We in the Internet Vagina Posse have now spent years spilling our most intimate gynecological details to the world online. We are now used to reading detailed descriptions of each other’s cervical mucus and drug protocols. It is an excellent, amazing form of information, support and friendship. I am thrilled that Cali has started the IVP blog and webring to help new recruits in this process and answer questions for another "generation" of ttc’ers.
But where the hell are the men?
For as long as I have been writing about my uterine exploits, I have been more than a little annoyed that society has made men feel even more shy and secretive about their fertility conditions than we do. Where is the world of male infertility blogs? Why aren’t they out there comparing motility and morphology and giving each other tips on what fruit or tea or tincture might up their sperm counts? Maybe they are. But surely Daddytypes would have highlighted such a webring if it existed. Maybe I need to do more research. I haven’t honestly attempted it because Wes hates support groups so I didn’t have much motivation.
Anyway, all this to say that I am THRILLED to point you all to a man’s point of view on infertility. Jeremy is a good friend, husband of best friend Asia, and he has gone totally out loud public on this. He is using his position at the NY Post to write an introductory article and a blog, Mechanical Reproduction, following their experiences with IVF (Did you know men take Clomid? I didn’t.). She is on Lupron at the moment and there is an excellent story up right now about not-quite-shooting-up in a bar bathroom that I KNOW some of you will relate to heavily.
Please read his blog and link to it. Lots of readers and comments will make The Post keep this column and it is SO valuable. I had trouble figuring out how to comment until Jennifer did, and now the comment box is there as it should be. So everyone follow her lead.
Thanks for the link. I’ll add it to my blog roll. I was able to comment just fine :shrug:
Thanks, bri. J. is feeling proud that he’s doing it, but also afraid that other men might be lame enough to think less of him…
I think they might have done something to fix the comments, because it seems okay now. Jennifer’s comment is there, and I got the box to type in without a problem.
We are moving on to the stim drug tonight!
Thanks! The reaction so far has been pretty interesting. Not to make generalizations, but women tend to be supportive, and men are more likely to have the macho prick reaction and say, “Why would you want that in the paper?” Which is exactly why I wanted to put it in the paper.
this is AWESOME!!!!!!
‘about time’ is right.
off to read & link
This is great,
We’ve certainly been there, done it and will almost certainly be doing it again.
I’m going to throw up a link and an explanation of a post.
If other men think he’s lame then I’m right there being lame next to him.
When seeing my first sperm test results the urologist asked me if i’d “missed the cup”.
Best of luck, Asia and Jeremy!!! And thanks, Bri, for posting this. I immediately forwarded a link to Jeremy’s blog to my husband. I think it’s awesome that Jeremy is blogging and providing a perspective on male factor infertility – and in the NY Post, no less.
And – wow – I can’t believe Mondale got a comment like that from a UROLOGIST. Is s/he in the wrong profession??!
Good for him!
Our infertility was all about me, but P did experience a lot of crap too, being part of an “infertile couple.” Not to generalize, but, well, to generalize, I think your average Joe still is not too comfortable expressing his inner-most feelings… and perhaps not able to articulate them in casual conversation, much less writing. But then, writing is Jeremy’s thing, which makes the fact that he is a pioneer in this even better.
It seems some people are still cruel about infertility (and shallow, too). The “hip” people over at Ga.wk.er decided to make fun of him for doing it. Both they and the people who commented said cruel things about “natural selection” etc.
I submitted a comment to the powers that be there at that mean site but am not sure if it went through to seek approval. If I don’t see it later, I will try again.
You have to enter a user name to comment, but a comment blitz in defense of infertiles would be a really good thing, my friends. Please join me.
Why worry about the a**holes at g*wker?