by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
What: The Jacksonville Fertility Awareness Seminar
When: November 3, from 10 am- 12:30 pm
Where: Marriott Southpoint
Once upon a time, making a baby was easy. And it even involved sex. If you couldn’t have a kid of your own, you adopted. About 10 minutes after the adoption was final you’d find that you were pregnant.
These days the methods of putting a bun in the oven can be a bit more complicated, involving doctors and hormone treatments. Did things get more complicated or did we just make it that way?
More and more career women turn to fertility clinics because they’re waiting too long to have kids.
There’s a feminist, career-centered mythology that women don’t experience fertility problems until 40. That simply isn’t true. Each woman is different and each woman has her own natural “window,” but fertility problems generally start just after the age of 30. By the time a woman reaches 35, it may already be too late.
We see many older women in the media and Hollywood with full pregnant bellies, but most won’t admit to using donor eggs.
Women aren’t the only ones that can have problems conceiving after a certain age. Although theirs doesn’t tick as loudly, men have a biological clock as well. As they get older, their sperm lose motility and morphology.
It’s surprising the number of people who are infertile. One in eight couples will have infertility issues. These issues affect 7.3 million people in the U. S., or about 12% of women of the reproductive age population. The blame is distributed fairly evenly amongst men and women: one-third of infertility is attributed to the female partner; one-third is attributed to the male partner and one-third is caused by a combination of problems in both partners, or is unexplained.
People that want to have a baby at a later age or when they have problems conceiving often get their advice from as many sources as possible and try all kinds of treatments. Some of the products, websites and treatments out there don’t really help desperate would-be parents. If you are trying to get pregnant, do your research. Go to more than one place to do that research. Don’t use the web as a primary resource unless you’ve vetted the site. Just because 15 sites say the same thing, doesn’t mean that thing is true. Sometimes one site puts out inaccurate information, and then it gets copied and pasted to others. Fertilityjourney.com has actually been peer reviewed, so it’s a great web source.
You can also go to The Jacksonville Fertility Awareness Seminar on Saturday, November 3, from 10 am - 12:30 pm at the Marriott Southpoint in Jacksonville. Three local fertility clinics are joining with RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association to celebrate the 18th Annual National Infertility Awareness Week®, November 4 - 10, 2007, along with thousands of infertile women and men, healthcare professionals and other thought leaders to promote greater awareness about infertility.
The fertility clinicians want to give back to the community, so each fertility clinic at the event is giving away one complimentary IVF treatment cycle; conference attendees are eligible to win a complimentary IVF treatment cycle and must be present at the time of the drawing. Three IVF cycles will be given away.
For more information see geocities.com/jaxfertility; to reserve a seat, email jaxfertility@yahoo.com or call Susan at (321) 258-6640.
• The Jacksonville Center for Reproductive Medicine (JCRM) has two locations in Jacksonville. For more information, please visit jcrm.org.
• The Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine has offices in Jacksonville, Daytona and Tallahassee. For more information, visit firmjax.com.
• Assisted Fertility of North Florida has offices in Jacksonville and Orange Park, and Roanoke, VA. For more information, please visit assistedfertility.org.
Founded in 1974, RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, headquartered in Bethesda, MD, is the oldest and largest consumer-based, nonprofit group that provides education, advocacy and compassionate support for those struggling with infertility in the United States. Each year, RESOLVE and its nationwide network of affiliates and chapters handle more than 1.5 million contacts from people seeking information and help. For more information, visit the RESOLVE website at resolve.org.
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