The Infertility Survival Handbook

Book Description
After seven years of tests and more tests, treatments and more treatments, Elizabeth Swire-Falker understands what it means to struggle with infertility. In this frank, reassuring, and thoroughly researched handbook, she shares her own personal experience and offers insight into what challenges to expect along the way-from getting support to finding the right doctor xto dealing with insurance. She helps readers:

€ Navigate the maze of infertility tests and treatments
€ Handle the financial strain and marital stress that accompany the treatments € Formulate questions to ask doctors and nurses and learn to be their own advocate for good medical care € Understand the options:

-IUIs
-IVF
-traditional adoption
-embryo adoption
-donor eggs
-gestational surrogacy
-the virtues of living child-free

Swire-Falker will tell readers straight-as only a best girlfriend will. This is the only guide anyone will need for navigating such a difficult course.


From the Author
People often ask me why I decided to write this book and why I chose to be so honest and straight-forward about what it’s like to be infertile. The answer is simple: I was confused by the information I found on infertility treatment and I felt tremendously isolated and alone. I was walking to my car after an acupuncture session one day and I was angry (why me?), frustrated (for every step forward it seemed we were taking two steps backward), confused (was the acupuncture really a waste of time and money?). But most of all I was scared – was I ever going to have the baby I dreamed of and longed for? I wandered into a bookstore hoping to find "the one book" that could help me deal with my pain and confusion. Book after book was written by physicians who seemed to know nothing about what infertility was like for the patient (clearly these men had all impregnated their wives on the first try). They may have explained what a Hysterosalpinogram involved, but none of the books told me how absolutely horrific it was to live through or why it’s so important to have it done. And so it began: endless research and a decision to go so painfully public with my own story that my family is still trying to recover (sorry guys!). I chose to be honest because I knew that if I was open about my experience then someone reading the book might not feel so isolated. The research I did for the book made me empowered – no longer fearful or confused, I was able to take power back and gain some control over my life. There was so much I didn’t know, so much that was unsaid about being infertile; I chose to change that. No one should feel alone and confused as they wander down the street aching for a baby. (And by the way, acupuncture does work. Research now proves that undergoing acupuncture during an IVF cycle increases pregnancy rates!)


About the Author
Elizabeth Swire-Falker spent seven years trying to conceive. She gave up her career in the process when she found she couldn't struggle with infertility and maintain a high-powered job at the same time. The years were filled with injections and blood tests and hormones and in vitro fertilizations, implantations, and miscarriages, and return trips to the assisted reproductive technology lab.


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Author Biography: Elizabeth Swire-Falker spent seven years trying to conceive. She gave up her career-as a lawyer in health advocacy-in the process when she found she couldn't struggle with infertility and maintain a high-powered job at the same time. The years were filled with injections and blood tests and hormones and in vitro fertilizations, implantations, and miscarriages, and return trips to the assisted reproductive technology lab.


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