Shaun Greenaway: What People Think Trying for a Baby Looks Like, and What It Actually Feels Like?
Shaun Greenaway, Co-founder of The Male Fertility Hub, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“How people think you make a baby…
Expectation
Decide you want to grow your family.
Walk off to the bedroom giggling.
Nine months later, emerge with a tiny human.
Reality (for many of us)
Decide you want to grow your family.
Repeat step two.
Repeat step two many more times.
Download an ovulation app.
Repeat step two, but now with a timetable.
Add in pressure.
Start peeing on sticks.
Crank up the pressure.
Book GP appointment.
Wait.
Have blood tests.
Have a semen analysis.
Wait.
Google everything.
Stop Googling everything.
Receive news you never expected.
Cry.
Have more strangers involved with your genitals than your partner.
Grieve.
Learn what the f**k AMH, FSH, ICSI, IVF, and blastocysts mean.
Stick needles into stomachs.
Cry some more.
Spend thousands.
Cancel holidays.
Watch everyone else announce pregnancies.
Cry again.
Wait for more appointments.
Wait for more results.
Hide all of the above from your employer.
Learn what anger really means.
Have science attempt what biology refused to do.
Stick pessaries where the sun doesn’t shine.
Hope.
Repeat.
Maybe repeat again.
Then one day…
Hopefully…
Hear the words you’ve been waiting years for.
Cry. Again.
It’s almost absurd how complicated and all-consuming something so fundamental can become. Until you’ve lived it, it’s impossible to appreciate just how much goes into trying for a baby.
‘Trying’ really does not cover it.”

Julie Morgan, Doctoral Student at Loughborough University, shared Shaun Greenaway’s post, adding:
“Behind every fertility treatment cycle is an emotional, physical and often financial journey that few people fully appreciate. Shaun’s post captures that reality beautifully. ‘Trying for a baby’ barely scratches the surface.”
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