Waiting rooms

What is it about fertility clinic waiting rooms? I've spent a lot of time in them - both as a patient and whilst researching my books - and however different they may look, they all have that same weird atmosphere.

I suppose you could say that hospital waiting rooms are never pleasant places to be, but there's something particularly odd about fertility clinics. It's almost as if you can feel the hope and fear and anxiety in the air. When you're going through a treatment cycle, they soon start to feel like a second home. You often see the same people there, who you know are probably going through the same treatment at the same time. And yet, it's most unusual for anyone to break the ice and actually talk to anyone else. We're all there, in the same boat, experiencing the same emotional traumas, and yet we avoid looking one another in the eye, let alone smiling or having a chat. I did once have a conversation with someone in a clinic waiting room. Once. In more than six years of going to the clinic, and spending I hate to think how many hours in that always overcrowded room.

So what is the best strategy for getting through all the time you spend in the waiting room? I read something the other day that suggested taking a good book. That's a great idea if you can concentrate on a good book when you're waiting to find out how many follicles you've got and whether they're growing properly. Newspapers may be easier, or a magazine. Some clinics do have a television in the waiting room, but the last time I was in a waiting room with a TV, it was showing one of those house-finding programmes, with a woman who was heavily pregnant and in need of a new house because she wanted more space. No one dared to turn over. We all just focused on the chlamydia leaflets instead.

Perhaps the ideal solution to the waiting room problem is to take the fertility book or magazine you don't want to be seen reading on the train or in the office canteen. You'll be able to concentrate on something so relevant to your situation, and for once you don't have to worry what anyone else might think.