Image result for infertility awareness weekApril 23-29th is National Infertility Awareness Week. It’s estimated that 1 in 8 couples get diagnosed with infertility every year and that more than 7 million women in the U.S. are affected by infertility issues.

Many of American Adoptions’ adoptive families struggled with infertility before ultimately adopting a child. We want to offer our support to anyone who’s ever had to face the pain of infertility.

American Adoptions and American Surrogacy will be at the Kansas City Infertility Awareness 2017 Family Building Conference, providing education and support for those interested in adoption or surrogacy as family-building options. Come stop by on Saturday, April 29th to learn more!

Share this article to lend your support to those who are struggling with infertility. 

For Those Who Aren’t Facing Infertility, But Want to Show Support to Those Who Are

Couples facing infertility need your love and support. There are a number of ways that you can care for them during this difficult time. RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association, offers some infertility etiquette guidelines to help you navigate such a sensitive topic, and you can learn what you should never say to a couple grieving infertility here.

RESOLVE has also published a list of 25 ways you can increase public understanding and participate in the movement to erase the stigma of infertility.

For Those Who Are Grieving

If there’s one thing you should take away from National Infertility Awareness Week, it’s that you’re not alone. Others have faced these difficulties and have dealt with them in many ways.

Adoption is one way that many couples dealing with infertility are able to heal and become a family, but there are equally healthy ways to move forward after the grief of infertility, all of which are important.

If you think you might be ready to consider adopting, you can find more information on the Infertility to Adoption section of our website.

Want to read more about others who are going through similar experiences? You can find some of our previous posts about infertility and adoption below:


How Other Adoptive Parents Healed from Infertility

Some of our adoptive parents dealt with infertility for many years before pursuing adoption. They dealt with their grief in different ways, but these couples all sought to become a family through adoption after reconciling with their infertility journey. We hope that the words of others who’ve experienced infertility will be a source of comfort and a reminder that you’ll get through this.

“I kept miscarrying, and I thought, ‘I don’t want to spend all of this money and not end up with a baby in the end.’ We knew adoption would eventually lead us to a baby.” –Nikki

“We thought, let’s take that money where there’s a better change of us becoming parents. So that’s what we did… Honestly, after ten years, you begin to think. I think my one regret is that I didn’t do this sooner.” –Silke

“If we hadn’t pursued this option, we wouldn’t be parents. And in the end, that’s what it’s really about, becoming parents. That’s what it’s all about.” –Mike

“To me, the adoption is going to happen. Whereas fertility, there was no guarantee of anything. You could just be heading toward a brick wall. So with the adoption, you knew.” –Jim

“It taught me that if one thing in your life doesn’t work out, don’t give up. I really thought I would be able to have my babies biologically and everything would go according to plan. But it’s just an amazing lesson to teach my kids that everything is not going to work out. You’re going to have some challenges in life and things that aren’t fair at the time. But just hold on. It’s like my testimony to people.” –Robin

“There are a lot of emotions with [infertility]. Actually making the decision to adopt was easy. I don’t think we even gave it a second though. Our biggest question was: How do we do it?” –Nancy

“I was so beaten down from all of the infertility treatments. There was never an ‘adoption thing’ I had to get over. We just wanted to be parents. I just wanted to do something that would end with a child in our lives. I read a book, Adoption After Infertility, that said the person you love most in the world is your spouse, and you picked them with no relation to you. Your friends are the same way, and the same is true with adoption.” –Anne

“The hardest part of the whole process for me was deciding to adopt. I was opposed to it at the beginning. After going through everything with Cheryl in terms of reviewing American Adoptions… it actually became a lot easier for me and I was able to accept it. It’s the greatest thing we ever did.” –Craig

“We looked into other possible fertility treatments, but it was just something that we never really felt at peace about doing. My dad is adopted and adoption was always talked about in our family. We knew it would be a pretty easy transition, so it was a growing process to mourn the loss of not being able to have more of my own kids and moving to adoption.” –Nikki

Take the cause to social media! RESOLVE suggests that by sharing your own infertility journey with your loved ones through social media, you can help and inspire others who may experience the same struggles.

Share this now and remind those dealing with infertility that they’re not alone!

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