One of my hopes with this blog is to help other's who are on the infertility journey. This week is National Infertility Awareness Week (click here to learn more) and I am joining up with RESOLVE for their "myth buster" blog challenge. The myth that I have chosen is that people of the Christian faith shouldn't seek out the help of a Reproductive Endocrinologist and fertility treatments. When I found out that I was infertile I was very conflicted about what people in my church would say if they found out we were going to seek out medical help to make our dream of being parents come true. It also tested my own faith because I felt like I was saying to God that I didn't trust Him enough to give me a baby without seeking intervention. I never doubted that I would choose to do the medical intervention but I did doubt that the people of the church would understand my reasoning for it. I remember thinking to myself that I couldn't believe that I would have to bear the burden of infertility and then be "stoned" for choosing the route of shots and treatments. It was then that I decided I would go public with our journey, to me not saying anything made me feel like I was ashamed about my choices and that I was hiding them. The reception I felt from the people in my church family when I finally opened up was amazing. They were all very supportive, they offered up many prayers on our behalf and they continued to be a huge part of our support system. I remember feeling such a peace when the pastor of my church prayed for us by name. But the one moment that made the most impact on me was when a mentor of mine, came to me and said, "DeAnna, never be ashamed of this journey, if you were diagnosed with cancer or diabetes you would seek the help of a physician, God has given Doctors the talents to be His hands while we are here, just as you would take the chemo or insulin they would prescribe you to fix those problems, it is okay to take the medicines to fix your fertility problem." That statement is so true! God doesn't ask us to bear our burdens alone, He doesn't see us seeking out treatments for medical conditions as not trusting Him, He sees it as us using the talents that He has given us to work with on this earth! There are many angles to fertility treatments and many reason's that some Christians are conflicted by them, to this I say, educate yourself, find out the methods of treatments that you can embark on that will not compromise your belief system. If freezing embryo's isn't something you agree with than have your RE only fertilize the ones you will be implanting, if you believe that your RE's collection room for semen analyse is filled with viewing material that you don't feel comfortable with, ask that your husband be able to use a different room, if you want your egg and sperm to meet up naturally ask for Intrauterine Insemination with your husbands sperm. So to all those who say Christians should trust God to have babies, I agree and I trusted Him by believing that He would give my Doctor's the knowledge to diagnosis and treat my problem. And He did and I am forever thankful for that!
Please vist http://www.resolve.org/infertility101 for more information on battling infertility. I wish I would have had more resources while going through my treatments and Resolve offers many different resources to make sure you know your not alone on your journey!
LOVE this :) great job. I wrote something similar...
ReplyDeleteI wanted to add that if you are uncomfortable with "collection rooms" due to the material and the matter in which is is retrieved (via masterbation) you can ask for a collection condom, and use it at home, or even IN the collection room, with all the material put away.
http://psalms113-9.blogspot.com/2011/04/other-side-needs-to-be-heard.html