Katie Couric featured many families and their struggles with infertility on her show “Infertility: Stories of Becoming a Parent against All Odds” that aired on August 6, 2013. The show revealed some jaw-dropping statistics about women and their abilities to conceive. A 2011 statistic states that infertility affects over seven million women in the US, equal to nearly 12% of women in child-bearing ages, or 1 in 8 couples. Another statistic I found staggering was that men and women ages 29-33 only have a 25% chance of conceiving. By the time a woman reaches 35, their chance drops to 15% and at 38, the chances of conceiving are just 7%.
Katie asked Maybelline model Tomiko Fraser Hines on her show if she had any advice for families are fighting with infertility, and this was her response…
“Be ok with your dream being altered. Not losing sight of your dream, but not necessarily having it just be the way you think it should be. Do your research, get great people around you to support you, and just be patient and know that you will be a parent in one way or another.”
Several stars have openly expressed their struggle with infertility. John Rhodes, the winner of season 12 The Biggest Loser shares about he and his wife’s decision to adopt after they struggled with infertility. Elisabeth Rohm, who you may recognize from Law and Order, shared that at age 34 her ovaries were aging prematurely – a sign that she would go into early menopause. Maybelline model Tomiko Fraser Hines suffered the same accelerated ovarian aging due to a family history of auto-immune diseases. While Elisabeth successfully conceived using her own eggs through IVF treatments, Tomiko had to use a donor egg. Bill Klein and Jennifer Arnold, stars of TLC’s reality show “The Little Couple” decided to adopt internationally after they found out that it would be lethal for Jennifer to have children and their surrogate suffered a miscarriage.
For families who struggle with infertility there are a variety of ways to build your family. Some of these ways are domestic and international adoption, surrogacy, IVF treatments, and egg donors. While conceiving naturally may be your dream, flexibility will be a key factor in growing your family.
Here at MLJ Adoptions, we know that infertility and secondary infertility cause loss and grief for those that it impacts, whether they had planned on adopting in addition to having biological children or had not considered adoption prior to experiencing infertility. We encourage families who have struggled with infertility and are adopting to take our class from Infertility to Adoption. In this class we examine those feelings and how infertility can impact your parenting. Adoption is not for all families. It certainly is not a cure for infertility, but it is a wonderful way to grow your family for those families interested in parenting additional children. In addition to the Infertility to Adoption class, MLJ’s Support Services can help families examine their emotions surrounding infertility and parenting to help them prepare for adoptive parenting. Our next Infertility to Adoption class is September 3 – you can sign up here!
If you are interested in watching Katie Couric’s show on infertility you can find it here.
Photo Credit: For more information about growing your family through MLJ Adoption’s international adoption programs, please .
Jordan Kelly
Jordan Kelly is a graduate of the Kelley School of Business where she majored in Marketing. As an assistant at MLJ Adoptions, Jordan does everything from event planning and managing social media, to writing blogs and designing advertisements.
Jordan Kelly
Jordan Kelly is a graduate of the Kelley School of Business where she majored in Marketing. As an assistant at MLJ Adoptions, Jordan does everything from event planning and managing social media, to writing blogs and designing advertisements.