Infertility is hard to talk about. How the internet makes it harder — and easier

Mother’s Day is coming up. Social media also provides an outlet for people to publicly share what they’ve been going through: Like pregnancy announcements, “infertility announcements” have cropped up, and Pinterest is chock-full of ideas for birth announcements that acknowledge medical intervention was involved. Elyse Ash is the founder of Fruitful Fertility, a free online program that sets up people going through infertility with “mentors” who’ve been through the process to answer questions and provide support. “You feel responsible, you blame yourself like you’ve done something wrong.” Women interviewed for the study told Collins they felt they had to keep infertility a secret to avoid being misunderstood — having people question the diagnosis or their medical decisions, or getting the dreaded and deeply unhelpful advice to “Just relax!” or “Just adopt!” The No. And there’s no guarantee things will work out in just one cycle — the average woman will go through two or more before becoming pregnant and getting a so-called “take-home baby.” For some couples, the price tag permanently closes the door to treatment, said Barbara Collura, the president and chief executive of Resolve: The National Infertility Organization.