# Amazing long article on the history of infertility



## pinkteapot (Jul 9, 2014)

Have just read this twice, and haven't seen anything like it before: 
https://theconversation.com/infertility-through-the-ages-and-how-ivf-changed-the-way-we-think-about-it-87128

It made a lot of the feelings around infertility make sense somehow? The bit that really struck me was how in the 60's the increasing availability of contraception meant we were all told that we had control of our fertility. They forgot to mention that sometimes, it's still totally out of our hands. In earlier times, while still devastating, people were often more fatalistic about it.

Edited to add: If you're in the depths of treatment it might be an upset trigger. It does talk negatively about the success rates of IVF. Just a warning. xx I'm past the treatment stage and onto 'moving on' (do we ever?) and found it somehow comforting.


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## Turia (Feb 2, 2013)

Good article, thanks for sharing.  I remember the birth of Louise Brown well  

Despite my eventual happy ending, there was a lot of heartache but I had kept going through 8 cycles because I had hope...and I was aware I only had hope because of the times we live in.  My 3 immediate neighbours in their 60's and 80's are all without children, and I know from the older couple that they would have loved family "but it just never happened" and of course then they had no options.

It is strange how we all think of it as a modern issue.  Even in 1941, Cary Grant's film "Penny Serenade" was featuring a story line of a couple's response to miscarriage, infertility, adoption and loss (Warning!  It is way too much of a tear-jerker on even the best of days    )

I had chosen my FF name 'Turia' based on the Riverbed Gardens in Valencia where we had most of our attempts.  It was only later that I found out the poignant co-incidence that Turia, a Roman wife, also suffered infertility.  The cause unclear but it suggests age as her husband was off fighting wars.  She offered to leave him so he could have a child by another but he refuses and they remain married for over 40 years (until her death).  This all happened in the 1st Century BC!

Turia x


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