Abstract: IVF survivorship is a novel concept in the field of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and their attendant autoethnographies. It also disputes the ART industry’s preferred narratives of ‘curing’ infertility and ‘delivering on baby dreams’, ideas that play well in cultures that celebrate parenting. The ART industry was able to expand with impunity for decades…
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The following essay comes from a former IVF patient. She underwent multiple failed IVF and ‘donor’ egg cycles. In the years since, she has endured a series of health issues. The IVF industry’s failure to collect health data leaves patients who’ve undergone assisted reproductive technology procedures with guesswork and unnecessary suffering. The lack of longitudinal…
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Elaine lives in Switzerland and was 35 when she started treatment. She began writing a blog about her life without children, grief and other related topics. Her goal is to break the taboo of involuntary childlessness and to provide a safe place for other women on a similar journey. She works in a cultural institution…
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Jessica Hepburn is an author and arts producer. After she endured 11 rounds of failed IVF she become one of the leading patient voices in the UK raising awareness of the struggles involved in creating a family. She is also founder of the world’s first arts festival dedicated to fertility, infertility, the science of making…
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My name is Camille and I’m French. I began the IVF process at age 39 and stopped after 5 rounds at age 41. I work in the fields of culture in Paris in France where I live with my boyfriend. My story: After 2 years of trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant, we opted for in…
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Sarah, who blogs at Infertility Honesty, agreed to share her story. ~~ The chaos began early and never let up. After shedding birth control, and during our first cycle trying to conceive, I didn’t feel quite right. Taking my body’s cue something was wrong, I visited my first reproductive doctor. He told me my ovaries…
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Trauma surrounds infertility and IVF but it doesn’t get the attention it deserves in the media or by healthcare professionals. After an infertility diagnosis artist Elizabeth Walker (co-founder and co-director of The ART of infertility) shifted the focus of her artwork using a variety of mediums to express her experiences with infertility. She also began…
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Editor’s Note: IVFis40 is the hashtag used by the IVF industry to both call attention to the messages it wants the public to see, and to generate new business leads. There’s another side to the #IVFis40 message. It’s #UnmaskingIVF This is our first photo essay created July 21, 2018, in the week that Louise Brown…
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‘Bamberlamb’ is from the Midlands area in England and was 34 when she began IVF after two ectopic pregnancies in her twenties. She waited until she was 34 due to a waiting list for IVF on the NHS. After her IVF miscarriage she began a blog about living with infertility. She works full time as…
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Former IVF patient Professor James Arvanitakis is a Lecturer in Humanities; Dean, Graduate Studies at West Sydney University; a writer and a contributor to ABCNews24 Breakfast. In 2012 he was named Prime Minister’s University Lecturer of the Year. He wrote the following piece for the The Sydney Morning Herald and agreed to let us share…
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