Regarding the NYT page Selling the Fantasy of Fertility
This is certainly strange. The authors of this page claim that the media and science have lulled women and men into thinking having a baby is a snap.
You can read their page here:
(Link): The Story Behind The New York Times Op-Ed: Selling the Fantasy of Fertility
Other than the two or three fertility articles I’ve pasted to this blog that say women over the age of 35 or 40 having babies is possible, the majority of content I see on this issue consists of hysterical, alarmist, hand- wringing, as in:
‘Women, crank out a kid before you reach age X, because after X, your eggs dry up!!!!!!! Have a kid now, now, NOW NOOOOOOW before it’s too late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’
I’m thinking the authors of the minority articles are more on the money and probably more honest – they have pointed out that those who keep repeating the alarmist “it’s impossible for a woman to have a baby past age X!” articles use flawed, or out dated, case studies and research methods, while others allow their personal biases involving parenting, women, and older people having kids, to flavor their reporting of the topic.
But the authors behind this NYT page are claiming the opposite, that they are seeing fertility docs and clinics over-selling their claims of easy baby making.
I mean, really? What planet are they on?
As I said, the vast majority of articles I see make it sound like a woman getting pregnant post age 35 is more impossible than plaid elephants existing in nature.
Thank goodness I was never desperate to have a baby. I never cared much one way or the other if I had one myself. I’ve always been puzzled by women who get upset about not being able to have one.
(Link): NYT Selling the Fantasy of Fertility
- By MIRIAM ZOLL and PAMELA TSIGDINOS
Published: September 11, 2013
Medical science has achieved great feats, improved and saved the lives of many. But when it comes to assisted reproductive technologies, science fails far more often than is generally believed.
… But what they’re selling is packaged in hope and sold to customers who are at their wits’ end, desperate and vulnerable. Once inside the surreal world of reproductive medicine, there is no obvious off-ramp; you keep at it as long as your bank account, health insurance or sanity holds out.
… It’s no wonder that, fueled by magical thinking, the glorification of parenthood and a cultural narrative that relentlessly endorses assisted reproductive technology, those of us going through treatments often turn into “fertility junkies.” Even among the patient-led infertility community, the prevailing belief is that those who walk away from treatments without a baby are simply not strong enough to run the gantlet of artificial conception. Those who quit are, in a word, weak.
… Now we know better. Ending our treatments was one of the bravest decisions we ever made, and we did it to preserve what little remained of our shattered selves, our strained relationships and our depleted bank accounts. No longer under the spell of the industry’s seductive powers, we study its marketing tactics with eagle eyes, and understand how, like McDonald’s, the fertility industry works to keep people coming back for more.
Some people do, of course, become parents through this technology. But we rarely hear from the other side, former patients who, in refusing to give up, endured addictive, debilitating and traumatizing cycles
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Related posts this blog
(Link): Should We Be Sympathetic to a 42-Year-Old’s Fertility Struggles? (editorial)
(Link): Fertility crisis myth? Rates unchanged, even though more waiting to have kids (articles)
(Link): If the Family Is Central, Christ Isn’t
(Link): The Decline in Male Fertility (article)
(Link): Infertility/ Kids/ The Male Biological Clock
(Link): Un Happy Mother’s Day – universal church continues to worship parenthood, family
(Link): Un-Happy Father’s Day!
(Link): Mormons and Christians Make Family, Marriage, Having Children Into Idols
(Link) Have we made an idol of families? by A. Stirrup (copy)
(Link): Get Married This Year! and other lies (from L. Turner’s blog)
(Link): Article: Smart Women Are Stupid for Choosing Not To Have Children
(Link): The Deification of Family and Marriage (re: Kyle Idleman book)
(Link): Jesus’ Family Values by Deirdre Good challenges conservative Christan emphasis on “family” (copy)
(Link): The Child Free City
(Link): Childfree Christians / Childfree childless
(Link): Do You Rate Your Family Too High? (Christians Who Idolize the Family) (article)
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