Infertility
Living without children
Maggie was fairly OK about not having children and when people ask her if she has children, she...
Maggie was fairly OK about not having children and when people ask her if she has children, she...
Sarah always thought she would have children and remains disappointed that friends around her...

Sarah always thought she would have children and remains disappointed that friends around her...
It is less frequent. But like me mother has got a picture in her flat of me and my sister when we were little, on the windowsill, and like even every time I see that I just feel, I just think God when I were that age I would never have thought that I would… turn out to be so disappointed, you know, because you always assume you are going to have a baby. You spend all your life playing at dolls don’t you and pushing dolls round in dolls pram, and like if any of my Mum’s friends or anybody we knew had got a baby we always wanted to go round there and see it and like I were always much, much more into children then my friends and when they all started having their babies before we started, you know, trying or whatever, it turned out they were always ringing up and saying what you should do and you know, I guess out of everybody I knew I would probably have been the one person that everybody would pick in terms of someone who definitely wanted to have children, you know, you know. Like there is one couple that we met that lived, two couples and we all kind of did things together when we were in New Zealand and they have got three children each and they have kind of got three children all the same age as each other. They have got, you know, they all go on holidays together, they have got three children. And the time that we have been back eight years now easily we have been back, they have found and planned a family and they have got, you know, a whole gang of folk between them and they can do all these nice holidays, and each kid has got, you know, an age appropriate playmate. And we are just not.
Sally talked about how her treatment failure felt like a distant memory. She felt she had a...
Sally talked about how her treatment failure felt like a distant memory. She felt she had a...
Perhaps working out better than you sometimes think it does. Yes. I am probably a glass half full sort of person because I look for the good points, and that has been a benefit, yes.
Tim felt that it wouldnt bother him if he and his wife were not able to have children.
Tim felt that it wouldnt bother him if he and his wife were not able to have children.
Naomi and her husband discussed that their lives together would be really happy, even if they...
Naomi and her husband discussed that their lives together would be really happy, even if they...
We had thought about it a lot. I don’t think I ever really accepted that it wouldn’t happen. I am not saying that was me being incredibly determined. I think that was me being very blinkered, and me just refusing to believe that it might not work. I think my husband was probably more geared up to it not working, but I think how ungeared up I was probably scared the hell out of him. And it was quite strange that it was the night before our embryo transfer in [city] and we were out for dinner and I actually said to him, “No if this doesn’t work we can still be really happy together as a couple.” I think that was the first time that I had ever actually accepted that it might not work, but that actually we would still be right together. Up until then, I think I had just thought naively, just thought it will work, it will work, it will work. I am just going to keep going until it works. And I imagine that probably scared him a bit, about what, there’s no guarantees, what if it doesn’t work?
Sally offered advice to those who are facing a future without children.
Sally offered advice to those who are facing a future without children.
Last reviewed July 2017.