Can We Lighten Up a Little about Infertility?

Ask anyone in my family. I am renowned to be the one with no sense of humour. As an adolescent, I guess I was slow on the uptake, so I kept a passive expression while I worked a joke out in my mind. Either my mother or father, aunt or uncle used the fact, that I wasn't laughing along with everyone else, to embarrass me. Once I had become the butt of the joke, I became hurt, insulted and cranky, playing right into their hands; more jokes at my expense. I'm older, quicker and more at ease with myself these days. But, don't tell my family PLEASE. Keeping up my image is the best way to avoid receiving the endless stream of jokes that are circulated via Group Email.

Meanwhile, I was thinking today, while reading Tweets and blog posts, that perhaps the infertile need a few jokes, specific to their situation, sent their way.  Ouch! I can hear some screeching from people who will think that this is completely inappropriate for such a fundamental life crisis.  Aw, c'mon. Lighten up a little.  I can see that this may be one of those situations in which no one else can make up a joke about infertility, except for the infertile and their nearest and dearest.   

Infertility is an extremely serious subject; one that causes untold pain, emotional and sometimes physical, to many people. It complicates and devastates people. It disappoints and disrupts plans. That's where humour comes in. However, infertility is so widespread that it's practically become a cliche now, touching millions of people worldwide and constantly in the media. I think it may have taken over from eating disorders as the "explanation" for celebrities who have been out of the limelight for a while and need a PR boost.  No one can live life miserably all the time, regardless of how serious the issue. I'm sure you have heard and even laughed at Osama Bin Laden jokes, as well as jokes about illness, death, adultery, obesity and financial collapse.

We all need to maintain perspective in order to live a successful, balanced and rewarding life. You gain perspective by looking at all sides of a situation, comparing them and balancing out the pros and cons, the good and bad.  Humour helps us through dire situations.  Smiling and laughing are proven to be therapeutic; they are infectious and relieve stress. So, perhaps we should trot some jokes out.

I'm not a comedienne, so I won't start with a joke I have made up myself.  However, I can see the potential fun in jokes about ridiculous infertility-related situations we have all found ourselves in at one time or another during fertility treatment.  I invite you all to submit one you have created or overheard, about anything fertility-related, perhaps on one of these topics:

• awkward, or even completely insensitive comments received about your infertility
• the pin cushion that is your bottom during IVF and other hormonal treatments
• playing embryo-roulette in the lab
• date and time-stamped sex
• a fertility patient that insists on giving you TMI (too much information)
• the stoppage of time between implantation and that fateful phone call from the clinic
• both sides of (potential grand)parents broadcasting each step of your fertility treatment among all their friends as well as the butcher, greengrocer and librarian
• Psychosis induced by fertility meds

We can all use an excuse to laugh, can't we?

I'm going to start us off with a joke I found on www.fertilityplus.org:

Why did the RE cross the road?
Because there was an affluent, infertile woman in her 30s on the other side.

See? That didn't hurt a bit. Tell me you didn't laugh.

Comments

[Mrs. Gamgee]

Ok... it's not a joke, but a story I read somewhere recently (been perusing a lot of blogs during ICLW)...

a woman going in for a regular check on her follies during a medicated cycle ended up having to flee the room laughing when she found out that her u/s tech's name was Wanda...

I giggled about that one for ages.

ICLW

[fertility diet]

Infertility is never been a joke. It is one of the major problems of married people. Internet gives a lot of help.