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Thursday, April 21, 2011

Upcoming National Infertility Awareness Week in the USA

In the United States, National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) is next week from April 24 to April 30.

One of the things that IF bloggers (and the IF community in general) frequently speaks about is having some sort of identifier, some symbol or sign of infertility that we can wear outwardly to show that we belong to the large population of infertiles. Infertility is hidden. So it's up to you. Unless you make the conscientious choice to speak about it, no one will actually know that you are suffering from a terrible disease.

Did you know that 1 in 6 couples is infertile?

Did you know that infertility is classified as a disease, and so recognized by the World Health Organization?

Did you know that being diagnosed as infertile yields the exact same feelings as being diagnosed with cancer? And in fact, I remember reading about at least one infertile blogger who also had cancer; she stated in no uncertain terms that for her, infertility was definitely the worse of the two. That definitely opened my eyes.

In recognition of NIAW next week, Whitney and Erick have produced a virtual ribbon for the blogosphere. Mel, in her infinite wisdom, used Infertility's Common Thread a few years ago to help infertiles have a physical symbol of their infertility that they could wear and that could help identify other infertiles. And Whitney and Erick have expanded on that colour/theme producing the Infertility Ribbon. Grab it and add it to your own blog; it's always nice to know that we're in such good company.

What will you be doing to raise awareness next week? If you can't think of anything, why don't you go Bust a Myth to show your support?

1 comment:

marilyn said...

oh that is very cool! I will go and check that out:)