Examining Infertility

As I announced last week mostly via Twitter and Facebook, I've become Examiner.com's Boston Infertility and Miscarriage Examiner. Essentially, I write about all things IF in the Boston region... and they're paying me to do it! I'm rather excited about my first paid writing gig. While the articles may be a bit more locally focused than some of the broader things I write about here, I hope to keep the content fresh, unique, and approachable to all of my readers. One of the first things I'm planning on doing is a series of interviews with some of my recent new contacts I've made in the IF field here in Massachusetts.

I'll always keep links the latest articles on the top right sidebar, but I'll also start posting some teasers here with links to the full stories as well. So far I have two articles live: Infertility and its impact on mental health and Massachusetts Senate bill S485 impacts access to infertility treatment. If you haven't checked them out, please do! And please feel free to retweet them and share them on Facebook as well.

You may have also noticed that I've started doing these "Read More" links on my main page. In an effort to streamline the look of my blog, I realized I write... a lot. And that's a ton of dense text on the page. I figured the "Read More" hack cleans things up a bit (although it won't retroactively do it for all of my posts, so it only really works with yesterday's post). I've also started adding more pics to my posts, because, well- who doesn't like pretty pictures? I'm also learning the wonderful art of photo attribution. It's like learning APA or MLA all over again, so you may notice lots of photo credits from this point out.  It's my way of being a good web citizen.

Hope y'all don't mind the changes around here as I start refining this blog. I'll still post updates on our journey (like yesterday's lengthy and stressful post, The Game of L-if-E), philosophical and motivational musings, and like the interview series I plan to post of Examiner, I hope to bring the same kind of current news and trends in the IF world as well to all of you here at this blog. This all relates to my bigger mission of continuing to be an advocate for infertility awareness as I advocate away through a variety of channels. The more ways I can spread awareness, the better.

(Photo by Erik Stabile via Flickr.)

Women's Health Matters: Period.

Sit tight: this post is a doozy.

I'm a Vagina Warrior.

I realize this is quite a startling way to begin my post, but being a Vagina Warrior drives me, it shapes the way I look at the world, and fuels my passion for women's health advocacy. What exactly is a Vagina Warrior? Well, it stems Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues; I performed in five productions of the show throughout college and two years after I graduated at the first college where I worked. The mission of the V-Day movement is near and dear to my heart, and a Vagina Warrior is someone who fights for women, women's rights both home and abroad, and for the safety and health of women and girls everywhere. My work in health advocacy, particularly around infertility, is how I assign my Warrior status (and when I say Warrior, think dorky Xena sporting Old Navy rather than leather-plated skirt).

So I've got three things my inner Vagina Warrior wants to cover in this post, all related to our periods: Tampons. The Red Tent. Project Vital Sign. Sound interesting? Read on.

So I was thrilled when I saw the new Kotex U commercials:

I am in no way being compensated for this. This was too damn awesome not to share.

Thank you, Kotex, for keepin' it real. I haven't had a "real" period in months, technically years if you count that fact that while on birth control, it's not an actual period as a result of ovulation, rather, it's withdrawal bleeding from a drop in hormones. I'm still experiencing breakthrough bleeding on my HRT (the pill), and I had to use a tampon for the first time in over a year last month. I stared at it like, "You want that to go where?" amazed at how quickly I had forgotten all about this strange feminine product. So when I saw this commercial I appreciated that it wasn't trying to sell me this flowered up idea but was like, "Hey. Hey you, you with the XX chromosomes. You're of menstruating age and you need a practical solution to your monthly biological phenomenon. Here, have a tampon." 

I appreciate Kotex's candor, because women don't like to talk about our periods. It's something society doesn't talk about... like infertility. (Funny how women's problems are marginalized into silence.) Which brings me to my next Vagina Warrior subject: the Red Tent Temple Movement and the forthcoming documentary: Things We Don't Talk About. 

 Anita Diamant's The Red Tent is an inspiring fictional retelling of the story of Dinah, Jacob's only named daughter in the Bible. The Red Tent was where the women of Jacob's tribe gathered for their monthly cycles, for births, miscarriages, and shared sisterhood. (If you haven't read it, go do that this summer. And keep a box of tissues handy when you do.) 

ALisa Starkweather has taken the fundamental ideas of The Red Tent and translated them into a movement of women gathering in sacred spaces to share in each other's sisterhood. Our temples are bedecked in red fabrics and welcome to women of all ages, menstruating or otherwise; the Red Tent Temple Movement is about restoring women's dialogue and celebrating the feminine life experience. The Red Tent Temple has allowed me to restore what I felt was lost- my sense of monthly cycles. While I may not bleed every month, I gather with my friends, my sisters near each new moon at the Salem RTT, and that sense of womanly rhythm has returned to my life. Isadora Leidenfrost will be exploring this movement in her forthcoming film, Things We Don't Talk About: Healing Narratives from the Red Tent. I get the sense that this is going to be an important film, and wanted to put this on folks' radars.

Still with me as I talk about all these "woman" problems? You are? Great. Because my biggest problem is calling Aunt Flo a problem. She should be a welcome guest, not a nuisance! CNN recently published an  article online about women's attitudes toward their periods. The article is (fairly) balanced, but the thing that got me was the general tone that "Ewww! Periods are icky and gross and cumbersome." (Yes, I know for some women, they dread their period: heavy flows, debilitating cramps, nausea, and worse.) It was the title that got me: Periods - who needs them anyway?

Who needs periods? Every woman does, that's who! This leads me to my third and final soapbox moment of this post: Project Vital Sign. Sponsored by Rachel's Well, a non-profit women's health organization, Project Vital Sign is working to create a national movement for educators and health professionals to recognize menstruation is just as much of a vital sign as heart rate, blood pressure, or temperature.

Allow me this divergence... I'm still reconciling my feelings on hormonal birth control pills. On one hand, it kept my ovarian cysts at bay all throughout college, after I had already lost an ovary to a torsioned cyst. On the other, it masked my POI for what could have been years. Now they replace the hormones my body cannot produce naturally. I've had this weird give-take relationship with hormonal birth control, so I'm still not sure where my allegiance lies. The point of this brief divergence is to say that eliminating our periods or masking them is a dangerous game, as we lose a basic sign of our reproductive health. My personal thoughts on birth control aside...

Our periods give us a clear picture of our reproductive health and even our overall health. The fact that the media and society paint our periods as nuisance, gross or insignificant is infuriating: it sends the message that we should do away with them entirely, reinforcing broader social constructs of shame, embarrassment, and silence surrounding women's health issues. I know I'm not going to change society, but I'll be damned if I don't try. And look, don't take my word for it (cue Reading Rainbow music) - Dr. Lawrence Nelson at the NIH/NICHD agrees in a recent piece on NPR:

"There's this disconnect," says Nelson. "The menstrual cycle is just seen more as a nuisance by many women. But actually, [when periods are regular] it's the sign that the ovaries and the whole endocrine system related to reproduction is working the way it should."

My points, after this whole long, ranting post?

Love your period. 

Celebrate your womanhood. 

Advocate for women's health issues.

Because women's health matters. Period.

And the Oscar goes to...

Okay, so I might be exaggerating just a tad. I didn't win an Oscar. But I did take the top prize in Wellsphere's This Is Me video contest!

I recut my video with a different intro title and stripped the audio and submitted it to this video contest a couple of weeks ago. #ProjectIF and the This Is Me contest just happened to align perfectly. As the top winner, I've won a Flip Mino HD camera and $100 will be donated towards RESOLVE. But the biggest prize?

Greater exposure to this vital health issue that is infertility.

Check out Wellsphere's YouTube channel to see all 85 submissions. There are some really great videos about some very important health issues on there.

*adjusts her director's hat*

I'm already plotting the films I can make with my new camera... Advocacy films, short documentaries, PSAs... I'm just going to keep riding this wave and keep on makin' waves in the process!

Calling All Bay State IF Bloggers!

Do you live in Massachusetts?

Are you living with infertility or have struggled with infertility in the past?

Do you blog?

I am looking for you!

I'm working to create a network of Massachusetts-based infertility bloggers. We are extraordinarily lucky to live in a state with comprehensive mandated IF coverage, and while we lead the nation in terms of what's mandated, it's not perfect. This is where I'm hoping that our collective voices can help make important changes to the current mandate parameters regarding infertility.

If you are a Massachusetts-based infertility blogger, please take a moment to fill out this form. I'm in the data-gathering process right now. The information will be sent directly to me and shared with no one else at this point. In the future, I'd like to be able to share this network with RESOLVE of the Bay State, the media, and legislators. You can opt out of sharing any or all of your information on the linked form. I know IF is one of those rather personal things you might not want out there: I know not everyone is in a position to be as "out" as I am, and I totally respect that.

Please feel free to tweet this, repost this to your own blogs, Facebook, or message boards. The more places I can get this post out there, the greater the chances of building up this network!

What IF? Video Production Notes

On this last day of National Infertility Awareness Week, I look back over the week and see such tremendous growth. For me personally, I'm looking back on this week as probably one of the turning points in my life. My followers, both of this blog and on Twitter, have substantially increased. My direct traffic has climbed steadily each day. But more importantly, I have met some of the most amazing, brave, passionate people online. I always thought the ALI community was such a small corner of the internet, but I have been proven otherwise this week. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has spread this out there. I am humbled and deeply grateful.

At the time of writing, my video has reached exactly 5,500 views. Every time it's embedded in a blog post and played there, or watched directly at the Vimeo link, it records that as a view. I have submitted it to CNN iReport, where, at the time of writing, it has received 208 views. It's still not yet been vetted by CNN, but whatever, it doesn't matter. The whole point of all of this was to raise awareness. I didn't create this video because I'm looking for my 15 minutes of fame or any money. I created this video because I'm simply sick and tired of 7.3 million people not being able to speak out for themselves about a very real and very painful disease, both physically and emotionally.

I wanted to share my production notes about actually making this film. It's funny- I've never made a "film" before. I mean, I've shot video, yes, but never put together anything like this before. I just used our camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. For editing, I just used the latest version of iMovie on my husband's Mac. Our camera was particularly helpful since it shot HD and also had unlimited burst mode, so shooting a series of still frames depicting movement was cake. (Even though it ATE UP the battery fast.)

The original idea was to get a variety of women's voices reading a bunch of these questions, profiling a day in the life of a woman, as if these were thoughts in her head. I then realized that I didn't feel like recruiting voiceovers for this, so I thought of just recording myself. Then it morphed into subtitles, and eventually, stop-motion signs. I drew a rough storyboard on Wednesday night. Thursday morning I wrote the script. The entire film was shot over the course of about 10 hours that Saturday. I started bright and early, filming in sequence all of the interior shots in our apartment. Writing all of these questions word by word was... time consuming, at best. I filmed the entire interior sequences in a span of about 4 hours. The most frustrating to film were the shots where the words appeared in the picture frames; I had to shoot, take apart the frame, write the word, reassemble the frame, shoot, lather rinse repeat.

For the exterior work, Larry and I headed to Boston Common. These shots were filmed out of order to make use of available daylight. What I thought was going to be the most challenging sequence: a woman walking across the shot pushing a stroller- was actually quite easy to get. Near the playground, I just walked up to a woman and asked if she wanted to be in my video. She said yes, the rest was history. To thank her for her participation, I gave her a $5 Dunkin' Donuts gift card. We did two takes, and I used the first take.

While filming, particularly the white board scenes and the chalk on the sidewalk scene, we got a lot of curious looks from passersby, but only one couple actually stopped to ask us what we were doing. Lots of stares, raised eyebrows, and half-smiles.

The music was kind of an accidental find. I was leaning toward a Bach cello suite at first, and then possibly a track from the LOST soundtrack (Rose and Bernard theme, for those of you who are curious). I was just listening to MUSE when I was like, this song is perfect. The lyrics even fit with the theme of the video, another happy accident. If you liked the song, please buy it on  - for only $1.29, it's a steal :)

I had a lot of fun making this. After we finished our shots on the Common, we went out to dinner with some friends for some tasty sushi. After I put the video online, I got a message from one of my friends saying she was amazed I was so perky at dinner afterwards despite filming such a heavy subject all day. The truth is, it was just energizing and motivating. I've been riding the energy all week.

I am still absolutely in awe of the reception it has received and is continuing to receive. (15 more views in the 15 minutes I've been writing.) I would love for this to get picked up by the media. But more importantly, this experience has got me rethinking about myself, my goals, and perhaps what I'm meant to do in this world. Perhaps health advocacy is my calling, and #ProjectIF was my catalyst.

Speaking of #ProjectIF: you have until 11:59pmEST tonight to submit your entry. Go do it already! :) I'm going to spend this weekend catching up on the 150+ entries so far (uh oh, this is going to feel like ICLW Iron Commenter all over again) this weekend, and I encourage you to do the same.

Click here expand/collapse the full list of questions in my video.

What IF we raise awareness about infertility?

What IF I never fill this scrapbook page?

What IF I never see two lines?

What IF infertility has robbed me of my sexiness and I'm never "in the mood" again?

What IF we finally save enough money for our one IVF cycle and it fails?

What IF we can't afford to adopt?

What IF I can't counter the thought we had to "buy" a baby?

What IF I see another pregnancy announcement or ultrasound photo on Facebook today?

What IF we have to learn to live childfree... with a smile?

What IF he leaves me for a fertile woman?

What IF I never let go of the resentment and jealousy of the women who got to do this naturally?

What IF I lose myself along the way?

What IF I stop defining myself by my infertility?

What IF I stop hiding behind my fears? My doubts? My grief?

What IF I redefine what it means to be woman? Mother? Family?

What IF I let go of the doubt, the fear, the worry, the self-judgments for one day? One week? For the rest of my life?

What IF I became an advocate for infertility research and treatment?

What IF every state passed a law requiring insurance companies to cover infertility treatments?

What IF I lived in the moment rather than in an uncertain future?

What IF my story can help just one person? Hundreds? Millions?

Click here to expand/collapse the lyrics of the song in my video.

MUSE: Exogenesis Symphony Part III - Redemption: Let's start over again / Why can't we start it over again / Just let us start it over again / And we'll be good / This time we'll get it, get it right / It's our last chance to forgive ourselves

ICLW May Be Over, But NIAW is in Full Swing!

I did it. 170 blogs (3 went down since the list went up). 170 comments in 7 days. I made my first Iron Commenter! I have found so many new blogs to follow- check my right sidebar to who I've added. I've found a ton of adoption blogs- check out my left sidebar just to see all the adoption bloggers I'm following. But most of all, I've met and made connections with so many people. The experience of making these connections is just amazing. Iron Commenter is indeed not for the faint of heart, but it is worth it, so worth it.

Like the post title says, ICLW may be over at midnight tonight, but that doesn't mean the comments have to stop. This has definitely kicked my butt into being a better active partipant in the ALI blogosphere. The sheer value in the connections I've made will only last if I keep up my end: reading, commenting, sharing stories.

Just because ICLW is over doesn't mean that NIAW is even close to being done! There's a lot happening on Capitol Hill right now. Melissa Ford of Stirrup Queens has posted her remarks she gave this morning at the infertility briefing on the Hill. They are powerful and inspiring. They remind me of why it is that I'm out and outspoken about my IF: because we need the government to act! She's there today with the executive leadership of RESOLVE. I hope they're making waves.

What else can you do to raise awareness? You can tweet about it, Facebook it, blog about it... make sure you Stumbleupon and Kirtsy and Digg and Reddit your links too! You can be out and outspoken about your infertility. Like Iron Commenter, it's not for the faint of heart, but damn if it doesn't feel good. "But what IF I'm too nervous about outing myself?" you ask? Well, here, let me do it for you. Use me as your stand-in, and share my What IF? A Portrait of Infertility video. Just spread it with words like "Because 1 in 8 is someone you know. This video is about a very important cause." And then leave it at that. *wipes hands* See? Infertility activism and advocacy is easy.

Other ways to raise awareness? Check out all of the blogs participating in #ProjectIF. Retweet @resolveorg or follow them on Twitter. Use hashtag #infertility in your tweets. Link to other bloggers on your blog, or even better yet- on your Facebook.

There's still 4 days left, including today, to raise awareness for National Infertility Awareness Week. Take just a few minutes each day and keep the awareness going!

What IF?

I was so inspired by so many of the questions raised in the Phase One of #ProjectIF that I couldn't pick just one to respond to. I saw this as a collective lamentation laid bare for the world to see. So many of these questions have flittered through and lingered in my brain at one point or another in our journey that I simply had to include them all. My hope is that this video captures the "everydayness" that is coping with infertility. So, here is my response to #Project IF. More about my thoughts on #ProjectIF below the video.




What IF we can become a positive force for change?


What IF? from Keiko Zoll on Vimeo.

What IF I can't pick myself back up after each setback?
I have seen the gamut of human experience and emotion this week. I've been going for Iron Commenter for ICLW, my first time trying it. I've read so much already - for every small victory: Aunt Flo still hasn't shown up, a successful transfer, social workers secured- there are just as many crushing setbacks: empty yolk sacs, canceled IUIs, no matured blasts, the birthmother backed out. I've read and commented on just over half of this month's participating blogs so far, and the sheer variety and depth of experiences is humbling, overwhelming, and at times, comforting. When you find someone, an otherwise stranger to you, who is going through nearly the same experiences, positive or otherwise, there is instant kinship between you and she, somewhere in the mix of wires and signals and binary code. In this mess of electronic tangles, we find connection.

If there's one thing I've learned so far in this year of coping, crying, laughing, and learning, it's that the road through infertility is indeed a bumpy one, and sometimes we diverge so far off course we hardly even recognize where we are anymore or from where we've come. All we know is that we are weary from the journey.

My hope in making this video was to answer this question above, to inspire those struggling with any aspect of IF to find the strength to press on, to find peace, to remain inspired and to remind them to be true to themselves.

What IF I got rid of the anonymity and put a real name and a real face to a story of IF?
Like most ventures on the internet, I got scared of putting my real name out there, much less my face. I hid behind my Hebrew name because it was convenient, and I think because in many ways, I was still ashamed, angry, and bitter at my diagnosis. Over this past year, I have grown and learned so much. I wouldn't say I've healed completely, but I've let go of a lot of baggage and realized that I can only move forward with my life if I allow myself to do so. I have found and met amazing people on the internet and in real life who understand this struggle. And I realized that legislators don't care about internet pseudonyms. They care about constituents with names, verifiable addresses, and most of all, votes.

So, allow me to introduce myself, dear readers:

Hi. I'm Keiko Zoll. *waves* Yes, my Hebrew name is Miriam. (I'm still the same old Miriam, but you can call me Keiko. I wasn't kidding when I said I was half-Japanese.) Yes, I'm 27 years old and yes, I live in Boston, MA. I still love food, travel, camping, scrapbooking, and playing a ridiculous amount of Modern Warfare 2. 

I live and cope with my infertility every single day, but I refuse to let it bring me down.

I'm taking this a step further. As I mentioned in my post about National Infertility Awareness Week, I posed a challenge to folks reading this blog to out themselves out of the IF closet on Facebook, Twitter, their blogs- wherever. Not only am I doing this myself tomorrow via my FB status message, but I'm sharing this video on my Facebook profile and Twitter accounts too.

What IF my video can help erase some of the stigma surrounding infertility, and give a voice to  millions who may be otherwise silent?

-----

For more information about infertility, please visit RESOLVE's Infertility Overview page.

Click here for more info about National Infertility Awareness Week 2010.

Click here for the complete What IF list.

Click here to see who else is participating in #ProjectIF.
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UPDATE: Read how this video has been received and my advocacy efforts two months later.

National Infertility Awareness Week 2010

This Saturday kicks off RESOLVE's National Infertility Awareness Week. Last year, I was ballsy and decided to post about it on my Facebook page. My status: 1 out of every 8 couples is coping with infertility... and I'm one of them. Learn more about National Infertility Awareness Week. I had three friends: a former coworker's wife, and two friends from middle and high school message me on Facebook to tell me they were going through infertility too, and how grateful they were for posting that as my status. I had waffled on posting it- it was up for a few hours, then I deleted it. In the hours it was down was when I received those messages, so I put it back up.

This year, I plan to post it with pride. Not because I'm proud that I'm infertile, but that I'm proud to advocate for an important healthcare issue. And because if my story can help just one other person, then that's all that matters.

I posit a challenge to each of you: out yourself this week. Share your story, your pain, your fears, your hopes. Lay it out there for your family, your friends- better yet, your state and federal representatives. Be it Facebook, Twitter - maybe even an e-card: put it out there. Give a face to infertility. Give a face to infertility advocacy.

This year, become a voice for action.

A letter to MA State Senator Scott Brown

I received an action alert email from a donor agency that Ari and I have been using to browse donor profiles. We haven't selected a donor, but it's a nice exercise in getting us at least mentally prepared for DE/IVF. The email linked to an article in yesterday's Boston Globe, where Senator Scott Brown, currently running for Republicans in next week's special election for the late Kennedy's US Senate seat, has said that he intends to propose legislation that would no longer require MA insurance companies to cover IVF. The key paragraph from the article is below:

Brown also said he was filing legislation in Massachusetts to ease regulations on insurance companies, which he said have driven up costs. He said companies should not be required to cover so many different medical services, including in vitro fertilization.Coakley's campaign this afternoon attacked the bill, saying it would allow the removal of mandated insurance coverage for things such as mammograms, minimum maternity stays for new mothers, and hospice care for seniors.

As usual, this got me fired up, and I fired off an email to Senator Brown directly. If you live in MA, I urge you to do the same: his email is Scott.P.Brown@state.ma.us.

Dear Senator Brown,

I recently read in yesterday's Globe (http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/12/brown_health_ca.html) that you intend to propose legislation that would reduce the amount of coverage currently required to be provided by Massachusetts insurance companies, particularly with regard to the coverage of in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Senator Brown, I cannot express enough how detrimental this would be not only your constituents, but to the greater scope of infertility treatment coverage in the nation. Massachusetts has perhaps some of the most comprehensive health care regulations regarding infertility treatment in the nation, and to revoke that coverage would be devastating to thousands of couples and families in this state. The cost of IVF can approach upwards of $30,000 for a single cycle, and for a couple that's counting on their insurance company to cover their clinical costs to suddenly lose that security mid-cycle is not only financially disastrous, but emotionally destructive as well.

As an elected official in Massachusetts, infertility affects over 150,000 of your constituents, according to the CDC’s 2002 National Survey of Family Growth. Yet, this isn’t something that we would necessarily write to you about. For many of us, we won’t even share these concerns outside of our closest family and friends. Some of us never find the words or the ways to share it with others, and live with a deeply stressful, private struggle. I, however, have chosen to remain silent no longer, and have channeled my fear and frustration into advocacy for an issue about which I deeply care.

Senator Brown, allow me to share my story with you, so that you may understand why insurance coverage for IVF is so important. Nine months ago, I began having symptoms wildly atypical for an otherwise healthy 26 year old woman in her childbearing years. My husband and I had no plans for children until a few years from now, once we were more settled financially. Taking the proactive approach about these strange symptoms, I sought out my doctor, who delivered a bombshell of a diagnosis: premature ovarian failure (POF). Formerly known as premature menopause, my reproductive system as essentially shut down, in a process I shouldn't be experiencing for another two decades. At 26 years old, I had lost my ability to be able to have my own children. At 26 years old, I was married for just over a year and had no plans to even start trying to have children for another two to three years, and I was told I would never be able to achieve pregnancy naturally. The only hope of building a family, I was told, as I sat there speechless and shell-shocked in my doctor's office, was to use donor eggs in conjunction with IVF or to pursue adoption.

It has been a wild year as my husband and I have been completely rethinking everything we thought we knew about how we would build a family together. Just days after my diagnosis, my husband was laid off. We moved quickly to transfer insurance coverage through my employer. As we began researching our options further, IVF has appeared more fiscally lucrative to our situation, particularly on one income right now. Dollar for dollar, IVF and domestic adoption cost about the same, in the $30,000 range. What has made IVF particularly attractive is that currently in the state of Massachusetts, that cost is nearly cut in half thanks to the state-mandated infertility coverage regulations.

Every decision my husband and I have made about our careers in the last nine months has been centered on the fact that we need to remain in Massachusetts, because of the very coverage that's in place. Senator Brown, if you propose legislation that would discontinue coverage for IVF, I simply cannot afford to have children, IVF or otherwise. This legislation would take away my ability to a basic human right: the right to build a family. The next best solution for us would be to uproot and move to another state with the next best health care regulations in place (in this case, New Jersey or Connecticut). In this economy, looking for a new job isn't easy, to put it plainly: just ask my husband, who is still unemployed after nearly a year since being laid off. How can this be something you endorse - legislation that denies individuals the right to build families or drives them out of the state to find appropriate coverage?

Senator Brown, I implore you not pursue this change in legislation. As a candidate for the Senate seat left by the late Honorable Ted Kennedy, it seems contrary to the legacy of progressive health care reform and support left in his passing.

In the Boston Globe article you state, "My primary responsibility is to ensure that the people of Massachusetts get the best value for their dollar." How can this be possible when you intend to propose cutting the coverage upon which the people of Massachusetts depend? Perhaps your rationale is that these procedures, like mammograms and minimum maternity stay lengths (as you also intend to propose coverage reductions), aren't relevant to the entire population of the state. Perhaps infertile women and couples, women at risk for breast cancer, and new mothers make up only a small portion of your constituents, despite the fact that 3.2 million women make up 52% of the state’s population. A reduction in these vital services is quite plainly cutting off the nose despite the face.

Senator Brown, I urge you to reconsider your position on health care coverage reduction in the state of Massachusetts, and I encourage you to contact RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association (www.resolve.org) or its regional chapter here in Waltham, RESOLVE of the Bay State (www.resolveofthebaystate.org) for more information about why infertility coverage matters. I also welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue personally with you and your staff.

Senator Brown, I don't want to feel like my chances of having a family are being taken away from me for a second time.

Best,
Miriam

Why all the hate on women's health?

I'm hoppin' mad about the state of women's health care in this country right now.

Recently, a national task force has made recommendations made about mammograms in women over 40. Today, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has made recommendations to increase the age of initial pap smears to 21 instead of 18 and to do them every other year rather than annually.

My first question: what's with all of the recommendations about women's health all of a sudden? Why is the general consensus that less preventative screening is better? To reduce women's anxiety, as several articles on both subjects claim? Are you kidding me? Is this the Victorian era, where we need to be careful about the anxious tendencies in women and bouts of hysteria?

I'm calling bullshit on you, insurance industry.

Preventative medicine is expensive. Mammograms, pap smears - these annual exams cost the health care industry- and more importantly the insurance companies- a good chunk of change. So if a national task force makes a recommendation that no, your routine mammogram screening at 42 really isn't necessary, then your health insurance company has more leverage to say, "Sure, you can get your mammogram. But we won't cover it." What I find particularly concerning from ACOG about the new pap smear recommendations is that this greatly impacts younger women's health. Women in the prime of their lives are being told to put on the earmuffs about their own reproductive health- essentially, "don't worry about having pap smears annually b/c of false positives, because of stress" - at a time when women need to be the strongest advocates of their own reproductive health.

I'm concerned when recommendations on women's health are being made on a national scale for women to simply "Don't worry about it, b/c it might stress you out."

Are false positives stressful? Yes. Can abnormal pap smears or mammograms result in unnecessary surgery? Yes. But would you rather run the risk that by not getting screened, you miss a cancer in its earliest stages, and thus, at its best treatable stage? Tell me about stress and anxiety then, National Task Force Making Recommendations About Mammograms that had *no* oncologists on it?

Also stressful: women who can't afford to pay for those annual exams when their insurance denies their claim. FFS, there are people who've simply stopped taking their medicine altogether b/c they can't afford it in this economy right now.

I will admit, there are a million things I wished I had learned about my own reproductive health as a teenager. I wish, instead of being scared into pregnancy by just holding my boyfriend's hand, I was told about the realities and statistics surrounding conception. There's only so much health class will get into, and saying that high school sex ed scratches the surface is being generous. But at 18, I knew my first pap smear meant taking an active role in my sexual and reproductive health. In the last 9 years, I have learned that I need to be even MORE of an advocate for my own health, but annual exams at least kept my reproductive health on my radar. I'm so tired that women are told to "stop worrying, it's all stress anyway" - when really, there are greater health issues hat are simply being ignored by lazy doctors.

(I realize there is a larger cultural issue with the fact that women talking about their hoohahs in groups, let alone in public, is generally taboo, that open, educational dialogues about sex, reproduction, and all things girlie bits are too gross or too shocking... but that's a battle for another day.)

And don't even get me started on the latest legislation in this country that intrudes on a couple's privacy with regard to infertility treatment, including government mandated reporting of a woman's every miscarriage. (Residents of Michigan: please advocate to overturn these bills in your state senate!)

If we don't stand up for ourselves and for women's health, who is going to do it for us? Certainly not national task forces or the insurance industry, that much is apparent, because making blanket recommendations that clearly favor that a woman's stress level over her longevity is just irresponsible, and quite frankly, offensive. I've shared this with women I care about in this note, women who have been their own advocates for their own health. I encourage you to share this with other similar women in your lives, or better yet, those that haven't stood up for their own health rights.

We need to make our voices heard on these issues - they're gambling with our lives, ladies, and I don't like to see these kind of odds stacked against our sisters, mothers, and daughters. I invite you to raise your voice with me.

Today is RESOLVE's Advocacy Day!

I'm doing my part by emailing & mailing elected officials, facebooking, and tweeting today... have you done your part?

More Advocacy Day info here at RESOLVE.

Demand affordable coverage for infertility treatment by insurance companies!

Click here to download a template letter to send to your elected officials.

RESOLVE Advocacy Day: Thur, June 25th!

If you haven't read already, this Thursday, June 25th is RESOLVE's Advocacy Day. Big stuff to talk about with lawmakers in DC, especially the House and Senate versions of the Family Building Act.

Sadly, the media debacles known as "Octomom" and "John & Kate Plus STFU Already" have tainted the American public's reception to insurance companies funding what appears to be frivolous, elective infertility treatments...

...but we know better! Check out RESOLVE's website to see what you can do to enlighten and educate your representatives, and to advocate for their support of these very important pieces of legislation. And it doesn't take a bus trip to D.C. to join in on the fun :)

Easy things you (yes you!) can do- right now:

1. Donate your Facebook status this week, especially Thursday! Change your status to: Today I'm donating my status to RESOLVE's Advocacy Day--leading the charge for greater access to affordable care for infertility patients. www.resolve.org/AdvocacyDay And if you're feeling bold, become a fan of RESOLVE on Facebook.
2. Tweet your advocacy to the masses! #RESOLVE #Infertility @RESOLVEOrg
   
3. Write/email your elected officials. Find your House Representatives here, or your Senators here.
4. Blog about it! Blog about what you're doing for Advocacy Day, how others can join and help out too, blog about why this is so important!
5. Share your story and photo with RESOLVE! I think names and faces of children brought into this world with IF treatments are particularly poignant, don't you?
   

What will you do to advocate for the IF community this week to the folks in Washington?

Family Building Act making its way to the Senate!

Exciting news via RESOLVE this morning: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) will be introducing the Family Building Act to the Senate! This bill mirrors the House version of the bill, (H.R. 697), and aims at making ART more affordable by requiring insurance companies to cover what is essentially a legitimate (and to some extent, curable) medical problem.

More info about the Senate version of the bill here at Senator Gillibrand's blog. Update: Full text of S. 1258 Senate bill here.

What you can do:

1. Send a letter/email thanking Senator Gillibrand for her initiative.
2. Contact your Senator to either co-sponsor or support this bill.
3. HR 697 has been assigned to committees. Contact the House Committee members directly to show their support. (The 3 assigned committees are linked in the middle of the page.)
4. If you haven't already, contact your Representative to support HR 697 as well.

Please feel free to post on your blogs, message boards, and FB pages!

Dear Borders.

Backstory here. Inspiration to do something about it here. Readers: I encourage you to join me in my effort to bring some sensitivity back to the bookshelves.

-------------------------

Borders Customer Service
PO Box 7002
LaVergne, TN 37086

To Whom It May Concern:

Recently I was at your Boston store at 10-24 School Street. I was looking for a specific title on the subject of infertility, and was horrified to find where in the store the book was physically located (pictured above).

The infertility books were placed above a row of books that began the Pregnancy section, that expanded into the Pregnancy/Parenting section. This small shelf of books was also directly below a row of titles in the "What to Expect" series. This entire section was to the right of the Children's section. To get to a specific title within the Fertility/Infertility section, customers must pass the Pregnancy/Parenting section, due to the layout of this particular store. While I understand the importance of grouping like subject matter together, this particular shelving arrangement is unintentionally insensitive at best, and emotionally damaging at worst.

The emotional pain associated with an infertility diagnosis is comparable to the grief felt of losing a close loved one, such as a spouse, sibling, or parent. RESOLVE: the National Infertility Association has stated that "Studies have shown that infertility depression levels can rival those of cancer." For these people, even simple activities such as going to the store can be a painful, jarring experience, as there are reminders of failures and losses at every turn. Babies in strollers, the round bellies of pregnant women, and even unexpected pregnancy announcements at social gatherings can leave a person coping with infertility emotionally winded. I wish I could say that infertility is an isolated problem that would only affect a slim portion of your consumer base, but RESOLVE offers different numbers: "more than five million people of childbearing age in the United States experience infertility."

To put it simply: cookbooks or diet books wouldn't be placed next to or near books about coping with eating disorders. Books on mixology wouldn't be placed next to or near books about coping with alcoholism. Books about coping with the death of a child wouldn't be placed next to the Children's book section. And that's exactly what infertility is (especially diagnoses such as recurrent miscarriage): coping with the death of a child that might not be, with the death of a pre-imagined future of the way things were supposed to go.

It is my hope that these shelving arrangements are a store-by-store decision to be corrected by local managerial staff, and not a corporate-wide layout imposed by Borders. In either case, Fertility/Infertility books should be placed in the Health/Medicine section, ideally under Women's Health. Although infertility is not strictly a female issue, "approximately 40% of infertility is due to a female factor and 40% is due to a male factor (RESOLVE, 2009)." Ultimately, infertility is a medical issue whose literature deserves proper placement in the appropriate section of the bookstore. Perhaps Borders could learn by Barnes & Noble's example, as noted in a recent infertility blog post online. This blogger describes how infertility books were placed under Women's Health and Pregnancy/Parenting near the Children's section:

Barnes & Noble, I applaud you. I have bought, I don't know, ten books on infertility in the last 18 months or so, and nothing has made me feel more crappy than having to pull a copy of "Infertility for Dummies" ... out from between a copy of "What to Expect" and "The New Age Baby Name Book." I mean, you wouldn't put books about fighting alcoholism next to books about mixology, would you?

I have been a longtime customer of Borders for many years; I would hate to have to take my business elsewhere, much less advise others who are similarly coping with infertility, to a bookseller with more sensitivity toward its customers. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
Miriam

Family Building Act of 2009 (H.R. 697)

Fertility issues are about to make their way onto the floor of House of Representatives in Washington. This piece of legislation would require insurers to cover fertility treatments. Obviously, this is a pretty big concern in the IF community.

Don't know when this is going up for a vote, and apparently this has had other forms in both 2005 and 2007, but it's worth being informed and contacting your Representative to co-sponsor this Act today.

Family Building Act of 2009: Full text here

Currently sponsored/supported by the following Representatives as of 4/8/09:
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN)
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY)
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY)
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
Rep. David Price (D-NC)
Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA)
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)


Is your state lacking support? Contact your rep via RESOLVE's online form here.