Knowing When to Stop Running in the Fertility Marathon

Tom Teicholz has written a really compelling, four-part series on male infertility over at yourtango.com. Actually, it’s not just about male infertility. The narrative starts out that way, but more than anything, his story is about traveling the twisting, seemingly endless road of trying to conceive a child, and all the ovulation tests, frustrations, sperm count assessments, crushing disappointments and acupuncture sessions that come with the ride.

We all know that it isn’t easy to get pregnant, but these sorts of stories about fertility-challenged couples often leave me gasping at how exceedingly, unjustly difficult it can be for deserving people to become parents. Two things in particular that leaped out at me as I was reading Teicholz’s piece: the amount of money (more than $200,000!) and time (six years!) that he and his wife Amy spent trying to have a baby. Which raises the question: how do you know when you’ve hit the wall in the fertility marathon and just need to quit?

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