by: Renee CooperPosted: Apr 25, 2019 / 11:05 PM CDT / Updated: Apr 26, 2019 / 04:02 AM CDT
Finding out it’s unlikely you’ll have children can put an emotional strain on families. Not to mention the financial strain that comes from trying different treatment options.
For National Infertility Awareness Week, KX News is calling attention to the one in eight couples, struggling with infertility.
We sat down with a woman who is familiar with the continued fight to have a family.
It took Patty Teagle and her husband about a year and a half to get pregnant, and then it resulted in a miscarriage.
Licensed Clinical Counselor adds, “It was probably another year before we got pregnant again, and now we have a 7-and-a-half-year-old son.”
But it felt like a long road to get to Henry’s birth.
Teagle shares, “It’s just something that ‘that’s just how this is going to go’. You know, we’re going to get married, we’re going to get a house, we’re going to have kids. That’s just what this is going to look like. And so, as you start seeing that that plan isn’t working out, you wonder, ‘Oh my gosh. What if this can’t happen?’.”
Sanford OBGYN Dr. Jessica Sedivie says infertility means a couple is unable to get pregnant after at least a year of trying.
She explains, “That affects about 10 percent of the population. Which is about six-million people in the US.”
She says she sees patients going through it daily. But she told us, about 40 percent of the time it’s treatable.
Dr. Sedevie adds, “Treatment can involve surgery, medication, sometimes assistive reproductive technologies, including IVF and intrauterine insemination.”
Teagle and her family know how hard it can be to spend the time and money, and just pray it’s successful.
She started a support group just after Henry was born, to share what she’s learned.
Teagle explains, “When we were going through it, I wanted to be able to talk to people about it. I wanted people to tell me I’m going through this too, I’m not alone. I kind of knew that people were out there that were going through it as well, but people sometimes don’t want to talk about it or share.”
The Bismarck infertility group, held at NuVation health was the first of its kind in the state.
Teagle hopes one day women all over North Dakota will be able to sit in a room with others who know exactly what they’re going through.
Dr. Sedevie says infertility often happens to those who are doing everything right.
If you’re interested in the support group, they meet once a month.
The meeting is held from 6:30-8 p.m. on the third Monday of every month at Evangel Church, 3225 N 14th St, Bismarck, ND 58503. https://www.kxnet.com/news/infertility-affects-one-in-eight-couples-trying-to-have-kids/