Monday 21 May 2012

What's the worst thing anyone's said to you...

If you haven't seen this video yet, it's worth watching - just to reassure yourself that you're not the only person to have come across some of these "helpful" comments from other people.  One thing we all find is that people who know absolutely nothing about infertility are more than happy to give their advice and suggestions as to what you ought to be doing or ought not to be doing - and there's often an underlying suggestion that somehow it might be your fault, which only serves to exacerbate the stigma that so many of us feel.

It's difficult. People can't always get it right, and they don't always mean to be unkind or hurtful, but most of us have out own lists of the most unhelpful things that people have come up with.  Do you have any particular favourites?  Mine include an agony aunt (surely she ought to know better?) who advised couples with fertility problems that they might want to consider buying a dog instead of continuing to try to have a baby and the person who seemed to need to remind me on a regular basis that she had got pregnant by mistake.

You're bound to recognise one or two from the video - the "maybe it just wasn't meant to happen" type comment is a regular one...  And the lose weight/gain weight/stop thinking about it/be less obsessed with your career comments are popular too...  Maybe we should compile a list...

No comments: