Introduction: Not all infertile couples decide to try to form a family by adoption. When they do, it becomes important to understand the psychological impact of the infertility upon the couple and their relationship with each other, and upon their motivation for adoption and their expectations of and attitudes to the adopted child. The implications of infertility are thought to be of great importance in adoption, yet we remain largely in the dark concerning them.

The material for this book was drawn from a longitudinal study, “Risk Factors in Adoption,” which was funded by the Scottish Home and Health Department (Brebner, 1982). In this book we examine in some detail the impact of infertility upon couples wishing to adopt, and consider the implications for adoption practice.

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About the Author: Cecilia M. Brebner, BSc, MB, ChB, DCH is Associate Specialist in Child and Family Psychiatry at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.

John D. Sharp, MA, MSc, PhD, ABPS, is Director of the Department of Clinical Child Psychology at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.

Frederick H. Stone, MB, ChB, FRCP, FRC Psych, is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Glasgow and Consultant in Child and Family Psychiatry at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.

The Root Cause is a down-to-earth, quick-read on male infertility and how to attack and solve the problem. It’s very direct, lightly humored, and actionable. Whether you have a minor, correctable condition or a show-stopper, there are options. This book keeps things into perspective and keeps you focused on problem solving. Written from the perspective of the author, it starts with the discovery that, after he and his wife went through extensive fertility testing, he was diagnosed as infertile, and the Root Cause of their issues. It explains all those tests in detail, as well as what to expect if you and your partner go through similar testing. You will then go through a set of planning exercises that the author himself did, and review the various options that are available to resolve the issue of infertility. This includes a worksheet you can use to help plan your own personal options. Everything from IVF to various forms of adoption are covered in great detail and explored from the viewpoint of the author. The final section talks about how the author resolved their infertility issues and ended up with a family, plus guidance that will help you do this same! The Root Cause will • Help you start a family. It will help you get through the entire infertility process by treating it like a project, complete with goal setting, plans and execution. • Act as a reference for everything from medical treatments to international adoption procedures. • Educate you, explaining some of the medical and alternative procedures used for infertility. • Advise you on what to expect when your partner is going through fertility treatments and IVF. • Keep your sanity, help with communication, and most importantly, keep your manhood intact.

From the Dust Jacket: The Russian Word for Snow takes us through Janis Cooke Newman’s unorthodox efforts to become pregnant—Chinese herbs that taste like dirt and a uterine alignment from a New Age masseuse—to the first time she and her husband saw the vieotape of the little boy who would become their son, a tape that showed him lying naked on a metal changing table while a woman in a babushka tried to make him smile for the camera. Their journey to adopt that little boy would introduce them to the often frustrating world of international adoption, and the scarier reality of a nation in crisis as she and her husband were forced to spend a month in Moscow during the turmoil of Russia’s first democratic election.

In this memoir, Newman describes how her mother’s death from breast cancer influenced her decision to have a child. “Pregnancy seemed the antithesis of cancer; another condition that caused cells to multiply and divide, but with an entirely opposite result.” An how her son, Alex, reacted to the videotape of himself in a Moscow orphanage: “Actually, that was another baby. I was in France.”

Told with humor and grace, The Russian Word for Snow is a tribute to all the ways we choose to make a family.

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About the Author: Janis Cooke Newman is a frequent contributor to Salon,com and other magazines. Her stories have appeared in several anthologies, including Traveler’s Tales. She lives in northern California with her husband and their son.

An insightful and clearly written work on adoption. Contributors are from varied backgrounds—birth parents, adoptees, adoptive parents and social workers. They look at the key issues for today’s adoption practice:
• What access to information should there be?
• What contact?
• Why was the process so secret?
• What effect has openness had?
• What are the lessons for IVF families?
IVF raises the same issues of “where did I come from” and “what happened to my child” as adoption—and IVF programmes are run on the basis of no contact between IVF child and natural parent. Accordingly adoption “experts” anticipate the same problems with IVF children as with adoption and the last two chapters of the book deal with IVF.

Searching For Our Angel is the moving story of one couple’s inter-country adoption journey. Liz and Darryn were encouraged to keep a journal when they began the adoption process, to record their thoughts and feelings with their adopted child when he joined their family. Liz writes powerfully about the complicated and emotional process of adopting a child through the inter-country program. In the book she speaks about her desperation of wanting a child, going through IVF and egg donation by her sister, to dealing with government bureaucracy which she says is overworked, undervalued and dispassionate. She writes about the heartache and pure determination that resulted in the meeting with her new son, Samuel, in a Thai orphanage, and their life together when they came back to Australia.

Marrion Wasserman relates her first-hand experience with infertility and her four-year “search for the stork.” After a futile attempt at technologically assisted conception ending in a stillbirth—as well as the unexpected discovery of a genetic disorder—the Wassermans finally decide to look for fulfillment of their dream of parenthood through adoption.

How It’s Done. The $2,000 Black Market on Babies. Test Tube Babies—Latest Facts. Husbands for Hire. Fathers by Proxy, and a Consideration of Facts Everyone Wants to Know.

An up to-date facts of life book taking into account the fundamental issues of our time, such as: abortion, sex changes, gay adoption and euthanasia. So much of our reproductive process is being altered from contraception to test-tube fertilization, abortion, sex changes, gene manipulation, everything is being amended and almost always there is controversy. Smith uses anecdote, case history, summary and explanation to enlighten the reader of the current breeding story of the human species.

Read this inspiring collection of 12 real stories from couples who have donated their frozen embryos and the families who have adopted them!

One in Four Women today suffers involuntary childlessness. This book is an essential companion guide for those who are considering assisted reproduction and want their expectations to be realistic or for those who are already on that lonely road and wondering what to do next.

An estimated 10 percent of married couples worldwide are unable to conceive or have experienced infertility at some point in their lives. The stresses infertility places on a marriage are numerous. But in A Spiritual Companion to Infertility, Julie Irwin Zimmerman views the hardship of infertility not only as a physical condition but as an opportunity for spiritual growth. In language that is personable and frank, Zimmerman uses her own experiences to help others understand the myriad challenges that arise while struggling with infertility. This book explores issues such as:
• Infertility
• Miscarriages
• Secondary Infertility
• Step-parenting
• The Morality of Treatment
• Moving On
• Adoption
• Deciding to Live Childfree
Zimmerman walks her readers through an array of options available to infertile couples, and weighs the teachings of the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations against varying points of view on modern methods of conception. Each chapter concludes with Scripture quotations and prayers for reflection, making this book the perfect companion for anyone on the spiritual journey of infertility. About the Author: Julie Irwin Zimmerman is a journalist and a regular contributor to Cincinnati Magazine. She is a former reporter for the Chicago Tribune and the Cincinnati Enquirer. A graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, she lives in Cincinnati with her husband and two children.

From the Back Cover: Author Maureen Linse-Adras has pioneered the global issues of endometriosis, infertility, and adoption. Go with her on her journey for a candid, and often humorous, discussion of a medical experience resembling a strange carnival world. Linse-Adras shares her personal journal, and her amazing adoption story, as well as valuable information and insights that can only come from someone who has endured such chance.

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About the Author: Maureen Linse-Adras received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Education at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, and her Master of Arts in Creative Writing at Northern Arizona University. She has been married to Michael Adras since 1988. They are blessed with an incredible daughter, Rachel, whom they adopted in 1997 when she was just three days old.

My man and I had all but abandoned the dream of becoming parents after enduring miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, and a devastating failed adoption. Then out of the blue, a call ignited a spark of hope and within weeks we’d been smitten by two abandoned toddlers in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, one of the most dangerous cities in North America. Within months, my American bravado, and Mexican heritage emboldened my decision to live in Juárez, but I was unprepared for the onslaught of isolation and fear for my sons’ safety while I plowed through a labyrinthine adoption process. Yet my greatest challenge came from within as I confronted the reality of raising two troubled boys and was rattled by the incessant question and doubt. Had I made the right choice?

From the Back Cover: The most helpful and authoritative work in its field, Surviving Pregnancy Loss provides:

• First-person accounts by women who have undergone one of the three types of loss (miscarriage, stillbirth, ectopic pregnancy)

• A comprehensive discussion of the physical and emotional consequences of pregnancy loss

• An in-depth exploration of options for the future—trying again, or considering adoption (with all the latest information on agency, international, and private adoption)

• Sensitive advice on many other topics, including the husband’s experience, the reactions of family and friends, dealing with multiple losses, and explaining the loss to young children

• Plus a state-by-state listing of national and local support organizations, and a full bibliography for further reading.

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About the Author: Rochelle Friedman is a psychiatrist who practices at Massachusetts General Hospital and M.I.T. Bonnie Gradstein is a reproductive health counselor at the University of California at San Francisco. Both have had extensive experience in working with couples who have suffered pregnancy loss.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, “Choosing Childlessness” and “Deciding to Adopt,” chapters 9 and 10, respectively, in the first edition; chapters 11 and 12 in the second edition; and chapters 12 and 13 in the third edition.

From the American Society of Reproductive Medicine’s Fertility News (December 1989): Dr. Jean Carter, an obstetrician-gynecologist, and her husband an English professor, coauthored this book. Together they have personally wrestled with the many issues of infertility and have resolved to live “child-free.” Their unique circumstances have enabled them to write a book that is both informative and entertaining. Few, if any books in this are deal with the issue of childlessness and resolving fertility desires as well as this text. The authors’ approach is best summarized in this quotation from Linda P Salzer, author of Infertility: How Couples Can Cope... “When you are chasing the dream of a baby, it is easy to forget that life has the potential for many other dreams and fulfillments.” Dr. and Mr. Carter review the pros and cons of accepting infertility and choosing childlessness as well as describe the many reasons why couples may or may not have difficulty in accepting this option. ... This book is recommended for all couples who are nearing the end of their infertility options, or for those who are unsure whether to pursue infertility therapy at all.

From the Back Cover: How far would you go to get what you wanted?

Follow the tumultuous and unpredictable path Michael and Kiersten navigate as they painstakingly pursue their options to bring a child into their life, including bewildering science, DNA muddling, and the bureaucratic complexities of international adoption.

Swimming in Circles provides an all-access pass into the private life of a couple faced with situations ranging from the embarrassing to the absurd, and decisions that are impossible one moment and incomprehensible the next. This truly unique memoir is told from the usually neglected male perspective and is filled with gallows humor peppered in between the depths of disappointment and the peaks of possibility.

Author Michael Barr presents every uncomfortable and emotional detail with stark honesty, chronicling his run-ins with an overenthusiastic mother-in-law, a clinically depressed couch, his own personal demons, and even Martha Stewart. His sharp, candid perspective creates a tale that readers are sure to find both hysterical and heartrending.

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About the Author: Michael Barr lives in the Pacific Northwest among a throng of beer-loving individuals, and as a result, he lives a particularly content life. He does three things every day: laughs heartily, tells his wife he loves her, and seriously considers therapy.

From the Back Cover: Our decision to put off the baby stage was never a conscious one. Other things just happened. We spent too long being educated, did too much living and traveling and indulged our love of being together. No one ever told us that we might regret this foot-dragging, lackadaisical approach to parenthood.

Unfortunately when Laurel and David decide the time is right to expand their family, things don’t go according to plan. This honest and heartfelt memoir narrates their struggle to become parents—coping with the discovery of their infertility, the emotional and physical demands of IVF; their experiments with alternative therapies; and finally, their decision to adopt.

Will they make it through the adoption process? Will parenthood fulfill all their dreams? And when they become adopters for one baby girl, what happens when they discover that a sister is on the way?

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About the Author: Laurel Ashton was born in Lincolnshire in 1968. She is married to David and lives in the Midlands with their two children. She works in higher education.

From the Back Cover: According to recent statistics, one in five American couples are faced with infertility. Johnston, who is the publisher of Perspectives Press, an infertility and adoption publishing house founded in 1982, here provides a handbook to assist with the negotiation of emotional and psychological issues that accompany infertility and to help couples to communicate realistically and effectively at a difficult time. Johnston stresses the need for accurate information to make sound decisions when faced with infertility. The cornerstone of this book is control; t00 often, she says, infertile couples cede the reins to the medical specialists. The author urges them to reassume it when making decisions about treatment options, family building options (surrogacy, donor insemination and adoption) and others. Herself infertile, Johnston knows the loss many feel when denied biological parenthood. She recognizes the devastating emotional aftershocks that often rattle partners after a diagnosis of infertility. The author discusses the loss of sexual privacy and Spontaneity that can occur as partners pursue parenthood and the importance of taking stock. Throughout each chapter, scattered among suggestions about drug therapies and strategizing, are brief profiles of couples who face fertility problems. The real-life stories—some of which end in births and some of which don’t—add strength to the author’s grounded approach to a difficult issue. These pages offer solace and, even more importantly, guidance.

Publishers Weekly
February 28, 1994

Taking Charge of Infertility was a silver medalist in the Psychology Division of the 1995 Benjamin Franklin Awards given by Publishers Marketing Association.

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About the Author: Patricia Irwin Johnston, M.S., is an internationally known infertility and adoption educator. Her personal experience in a family which dealt with two generations of infertility led her to become a volunteer for the consumer groups in the fields of infertility and adoption.

Over the course of fourteen years Pat was a RESOLVE chapter co-founder and president, was a regional chapter representative to RESOLVE’s national board, and spent three years as that board’s chairman. (RESOLVE’s annual volunteer of the year award was named in her honor.) She was also among the initiating members of the National Advisory Board for Adoptive Families of America and has been an advisor for several other national organizations and publications. She was one of the North American Council on Adoptable Children’s 1989 Adoption Activists of the Year. In 1992 she was named a Friend of Adoption by the Adoptive Parents Committee of New York.

Her earlier books, also from Perspectives Press, include Perspectives on a Grafted Tree, Understanding: A Guide to Impaired Fertility for Family and Friends, An Adoptor’s Advocate, and Adopting after Infertility.

From the Publisher: What impact has technology had on cultural meanings, values, and symbols? This anthropological exploration shows how technologies produce novel and sometimes jarring realignments among cultural institutions. Contemporary reproductive, medical, genetic, and information technologies forge unprecedented family relationships, produce a new mode of thinking based on the confluence of artificial and human intelligence, and reconfigure conventional scales of time and space. Taken together, they redefine what it is to be human.

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About the Author: F. Allan Hanson is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas and the author of several books, including Testing Testing: Social Consequences of the Examined Life and The Trouble with Culture: How Computers are Calming the Culture Wars.

From the Publisher: There is nothing quite so valuable as a book that is rooted in difficult and real personal experience, constructed with sound theological thinking, and applied in a practical manner. That combination is rare, but Richard Voelz manages it in this book.

Often those who are in ministry, in positions of leadership in the church, fail to respond to needs, or seem insensitive to them, simply because they have no idea what to say and what to do. We have celebrations and commemorations in the church for traditional holy days and for major transitions of life, and we ought to do this. But what takes the theology celebrated, taught, and lived on days like Christmas, Good Friday, or Easter and applies them to daily hardships experienced by members of the community?

If we are to be an effective community, serving as an extended family for one another, we cannot limit ourselves to talking about, celebrating, or even mourning just the expected things. We need to be able to connect with people who are mourning for any sort of loss.

In this book, you will learn how to reach out to people who are dealing with issues of reproductive loss and adoption in a way that can bring healing to individuals and to the community. It will speak strongly to pastors, but should also be helpful to church leaders, especially those in small groups. It will help build understanding and lay the groundwork for making these events of life a part of our continuing concern and our plan to bring wholeness and healing to our churches and to the world.

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About the Author: Richard W. Voelz is an Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA. Rich is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) with over 10 years of congregational ministry experience. A PhD graduate of Vanderbilt University’s program in Homiletics and Liturgics (’11), he is also the author of Youthful Preaching (Cascade, 2016) and a contributing editor of The Living Pulpit (Chalice, 2018).

From the Dust Jacket: The birth of the first test tube baby in 1978 focused attention on the sweeping advances in assisted reproductive technology (ART), which is now a multi-billion-dollar business in the United States. Sperm and eggs are bought and sold in a market that has few barriers to its skyrocketing growth. While ART has been an invaluable gift to thousands of people, creating new families, the use of someone else’s genetic material raises complex legal and public policy issues that touch on technological anxiety, eugenics, reproductive autonomy, identity, and family structure. How should the use of gametic material be regulated? Should recipients be able to choose the “best” sperm and eggs? Should a child ever be able to discover the identity of her gamete donor? Who can claim parental rights?

Naomi R. Cahn explores these issues and many more in Test Tube Families, noting that although such questions are fundamental to the new reproductive technologies, there are few definitive answers currently provided by the law, ethics, or cultural norms. As a new generation of “donor kids” comes of age, Cahn calls for better regulation of ART, exhorting legal and policy-making communities to cease applying piecemeal laws and instead create legislation that sustains the fertility industry while simultaneously protecting the interests of donors, recipients, and the children that result from successful transfers.

Incorporating real-life stories to illustrate her arguments, Cahn provides specific suggestions for legal reforms. The book sets out a series of controversial proposals, including an end to donor anonymity and a plea for states to clarify parentage decisions. She also calls for the federal government to regulate ART processes to ensure that donors are adequately protected against exploitation, that recipients receive the gametes they have been promised, and that the market functions ethically as well as efficiently.

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About the Author: Naomi R. Cahn is John Theodore Fey Research Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School and a Senior Fellow at the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. She is coauthor, with Douglas E. Abrams, Catherine J. Ross, and David D. Meyer, of Contemporary Family Law, coeditor with Joan Heifetz Hollinger, of Families by Law: An Adoption Reader (NYU Press, 2004), and, with Helena Michie, coauthor of Confinements: Fertility and Infertility in Contemporary Culture (Rutgers University Press).

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By the Same Author: Families By Law: An Adoption Reader (with Joan Heifetz Hollinger; 2004); The New Kinship: Constructing Donor-Conceived Families (2013); and Finding Our Families: A First-of-Its-Kind Book for Donor-Conceived People and Their Families (with Wendy Kramer; 2013, Avery), among others.

Discusses the problem of infertility and how some people have gone through various stages of despair, anger, false hope, and real hope, followed in each case by some resolution to the problem, including artificial insemination, adoption, or medically mediated pregnancy; or even acceptance of childlessness.

From the Publisher: The first IVF conceived birth in 1978 resulted in a significant growth of third-party reproductive options which continue to raise ethical, legal, and psychological questions. Third-party reproduction procedures can involve as many as five people: sperm donor, egg donor, gestational carrier, and intended parents.

Third-Party Reproduction: A Comprehensive Guide utilizes experts in the field to address the medical, psychological, ethical and legal aspects of sperm donation, egg donation, embryo donation, and the use of gestational carriers. In addition, there are chapters on the medical and ethical aspects of posthumous reproduction, religious aspects of third-party reproduction, and how to avoid pitfalls of third-party reproduction.

Aimed at physicians, trainees, psychologists, nurses, and social workers whose practices may include patients considering third-party reproduction, the intent of this book is to provide a comprehensive and practical overview of the many aspects of third-party reproduction to help all those involved to better understand them. Patients considering third-party reproduction may also find value in this book.

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About the Author: James Goldfarb, MD, MBA, is the Director of Fertility Services and In Vitro Fertilization at University Hospitals of Cleveland. He is also a Clinical Professor of Reproductive Biology at the Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Since the ’80s, Dr. Goldfarb has been at the forefront of third-party reproduction. His infertility program was responsible for the first in-vitro fertilization birth in Ohio in 1983 and the world’s first in-vitro fertilization/surrogate birth in 1986. He is immediate past president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SART) and, through his association with SART and his active clinical practice, he has been very involved with recent issues regarding all aspects of third-party reproduction.

Three Strikes But Not Out: The Conquering of a Doomsday Infertility Diagnosis recounts my painstaking work leading to eventual triumph over a fertility problem deemed insurmountable by nearly every doctor I encountered. Focusing initially on my inaccurate, unexplained infertility label, the story then turns to the doomsday diagnosis I was eventually given. This allegedly huge strike against me, along with strikes two and three, my advancing age and the ever increasing number of years my husband and I were failing to conceive, gave us miniscule odds of success. However, my overriding feeling that all was not right with my diagnosis prevailed, and the bulk of my book then centers on my commitment to research my condition up, down and sideways, uncovering multiple missed diagnoses and finding, at long last, two brilliant doctors who would treat me properly and become the heroes of my story. I discuss the setbacks and frustrations, the pain, both emotional and physical, and the elation that ultimately found us along this trying path. My sincere hope is that this uplifting tale, highlighting the importance of self-advocacy and refusal to take no for an answer, provides encouragement and hope to anyone fighting infertility, a very formidable foe.

To Make a Life chronicles a couple’s heartbreaking journey through infertility, a failed adoption, a miracle pregnancy and then ultimately, a devastating loss. With a unique voice and vulnerability, Daniel Walser surpasses circumstantial self-help—he instead invites the reader to face God honestly in the hollows of heartache, embrace His healing and grace, and trust that brokenness is overcome by beauty, loneliness conquered by love, and fear defeated by faith.

This is the funny, sad, gripping story of Ms. Dillon’s long courtship with Roger; their eventual marriage; and their excruciating efforts to have a family, despite infertility, miscarriages, failed adoptions and one baby’s death. These events naturally raised serious questions about God’s goodness, and the story includes the spiritual journey occurring underneath the details. The drama, honesty, humility and humor make it hard to put down. Almost everyone will relate to this story, because it’s about True Love. About the Author: Susan Dillon was born in the Midwest during the baby boom, attended college in California, and worked in the public interest for a few years in Washington D.C. She went to law school hoping to find some direction in life, worked in large law firms and a nonprofit corporation. Her real life began when she married and began raising a family. She and her husband and two children live outside Washington, D.C.

From the Back Cover: One in ten couples is infertile, and as many as one in six approaches a doctor because the woman has not yet conceived. If you are unable to have a baby or are having difficulty in conceiving, this sympathetic and informative book will help both of you to understand the problem and show you how to cope.

Maggie Jones discusses all the physical and emotional causes of infertility and childlessness, and considers in depth and emotional reactions—not only to infertility but also to child loss through miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant death. She describes how to seek treatment, adopt or foster, or adjust to childlessness if treatment fails.

Couples who desperately want a child often suffer a great deal of anguish through their apparent inability to conceive or bring a baby to term. This book tells you what you should do and offers hope and help.

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About the Author: Maggie Jones is a freelance journalist. In 1975 she graduated from Exeter University with a BSc in Biological Sciences. She then worked for five years at the Family Planning Association in their Press and Publications Department, where she wrote reports and edited the quarterly journal Family Planning Today. She has written articles which have appeared in such newspapers and magazines as the Guardian, World Health and the Sunday Times. She has edited a series of practical guides for the National Council for Voluntary Organizations. She is married and lives in London.

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By the Same Author: Everything You Need to Know about Adoption (1987).

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, Chapter 6: Adoption and Fostering (pp. 94-104).

From the Publisher: Are you, or is someone you love, infertile? Family and friends often don’t know how to react or what to say. This booklet is for them. It introduces the uninitiated to the stress and strain of infertility and it provides specific advice on how to be supportive to the infertile couple. Understanding Infertility is an overview of infertility for those who care.

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About the Author: Patricia Irwin Johnston, MS, is an infertility and adoption educator and advocate with over 30 years of experience as both a volunteer (with local and national advocacy groups in the field) and as professional (publisher at Perspectives Press, Inc.) in the field of challenged family building. She is the author of several award-winning books (the most recent, Adopting: Sound Choices, Strong Families won the 2009 IPBA Benjamin Franklin Award as best self-help book and a 2010 Mom’s Choices Award) and has herself been given several awards, including being named a 2007 Angel in Adoption by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption. A member of an extended family directly touched through five generations by adoptions, Pat and her husband live in Indianapolis.

From the Publisher: In the United States, more than five million people of childbearing age experience the frustration of infertility. Sophisticated couples can now arm themselves with this Unofficial Guide to find out where to go for help, what treatments really work, how to get insurance coverage, and how to beat the odds and improve chances of conception. Readers learn what a specialist might be reluctant to tell a patient: harmful side effects of certain drugs, the likelihood of multiple births, and how to manage treatments cost effectively. The Unofficial Guide to Infertility delivers comprehension, protection, and authoritative coverage on: How to find and select a good reproductive endocrinologist The current fertility prescription drugs scrutinized and ranked The lowdown on alternative and experimental therapies and treatments The inside scoop on how to prevent infertility from ruining your marriage The important role of a positive mental state and good physical health in getting pregnant.

Sabrina and Tony had a “Grand Plan”: They would get married and when they were ready to start a family, they would get pregnant. It seemed simple enough. But life has a way of setting up barricades on the road to success. And as Sabrina and Tony soon realized, their decision to have a baby was just the beginning of a long and arduous journey. Waiting for a Baby Our Successful Infertility Journey Through IVF takes you inside the hearts and minds of a couple whose dream of becoming parents seems continually thwarted. Author Sabrina Sargent leads you step by step through the experiences she and her husband shared—from the frustrating days of trying to conceive; from fertility drugs and in vitro fertilization to alternative medicine, the option of adoption, and prayer. Often heartbreaking, ultimately uplifting, Tony and Sabrina’s journey is an inspiration not just to couples who face infertility but to all who travel a difficult road, guided by hope and faith.