More than 6 million women of childbearing age in the United States have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant, yet infertility, and specifically the emotional and physical pain that comes with it, is still a taboo topic, even among some women.
L’Oreal Thompson Payton, a 33-year-old from Chicago, said she never heard discussions about infertility and infertility treatments when she was growing up.
Even when Payton, a writer, found herself in her early 30s, married, unable to conceive and turning to in-vitro fertilization, she said she found few people talking honestly about the reality of what she calls “the messy middle” — that time between starting infertility treatments and, if it all goes according to plan, having a baby.
“IVF is a full-time job and it can wreck you physically, emotionally, mentally,” Payton told “Good Morning America.” “You’re just putting your body under a lot of physical stress and emotional stress as well, because you’re doing this with the hope that you’re going to get the result and the outcome that you want, and as we’ve learned firsthand, that’s not always the case.”
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GoodMorningAmerica.com is tackling a different taboo women’s health topic each month, breaking down stigmas on everything from mental health to infertility, STDs, orgasms and alcoholism.
Payton said she experienced scars, bruising and bloating while taking the daily hormone injections, describing it all as an “ugly process.”
“When we were going through our first egg retrieval, I felt super bloated and heavy, like my pants weren’t fitting and leggings were my best friends,” she said. “The symptoms are very similar to pregnancy, and also similar to PMS, so it can really mess with you. Things are sensitive and your hormones are out of whack.”
GoodMorningAmerica.com is tackling a different taboo women’s health topic each month, breaking down stigmas on everything from mental health to infertility, STDs, orgasms and alcoholism.
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