Infertility in the Media

So I've noticed lately that there seems to be more and more infertility on TV. I think there's pros and cons to this. Pro-finally infertility is beginning to 'come out of the closet' and not be seen as something to be ashamed of. It gives a little bit of balance to Hollywood's baby craze of recent years. Con-sometimes it's kind of hard to watch people dealing with infertility on TV when you're living it everyday. And sometimes when infertility isn't dealt with realistically, it tends to make me kind of angry. For example, one of my favorite shows is Ghost Whisperer. Sidenote: Hubbie isn't generally very much into television while I am very much into watching TV. Generally, he doesn't watch shows with me, but every once-in-awhile I can get him to watch the Ghost Whisperer with me-mainly because he thinks Jennifer Love Hewitt is hot and she often runs around scantily clad while talking to ghosts. I'm not sure if this is a win situation, but I do get to cuddle with Hubbie and watch my fave show, so I guess I'll accept my losses and move on!
Anyway, back to infertility and the Ghost Whisperer. So Melinda (Hewitt) and her husband have finally decided to try to start a family. For the first few seasons, Melinda wasn't too keen on having children-she had some unresolved issues, one of which was how to deal with seeing dead people and having a baby at the same time. But then they started to try and get pregnant but were having difficulties. Then all of a sudden, in one of the episodes, Melinda finds out that there is a pill that she can take that will make it possible for her to have a baby. So after that episode, I felt a little angry with the writers because they made it too easy. And I worried that maybe some other women dealing with infertility would get more frustrated with their situation because it wasn't that easy. I know, I know, it's just a show, but these are the things that go through my mind (to think I watch TV to relax. Ha!). So this is what I was thinking, and I was getting ready to give up my Ghost Whisperer addiction, but then I decided to give it one more chance and in the next episode, they kill off Melinda's husband. Then I was extremely angry because just when things were going to get better for her, she was going to be able to have a baby...it was a low blow. And then I was fuming. She's been dealing with dead people's problems for years now and then infertility and then they kill her husband?! Why do they have to be so hard on the poor girl? Have the writers no mercy? If you haven't figured it out by now, I think I'm a nutcase. These are truly the thoughts that go through my head at any given moment...sad.

Let us move on to other examples of infertility in the media. The Practice deals with quite a few infertility issues since that's what some of the doctors do on that show. But I don't watch that show very often...it's up against another show that I love. And I've heard that on a certain soap opera there's been a some different infertility issues with some of the characters. I've just heard this from a friend of a friend, mind you. I would never waste my time watching that mindless, trashy stuff. Though if I did occassionally catch a couple of hours, I would have to admit that I find Sonny from GH very sexy...or so my friend of a friend thinks, anyway.

Well, the other day I was watching another one of my addictions, ER, and they have one of the doctors going through infertility. She lost a young child a few years back and she and her husband have just begun to try to have a baby. Because she is older, her chances were pretty slim, so she decided to go with IVF. This past week she went through the egg retrieval. It was heart wrenching because she told her husband that if it was bad news she wanted to hear it from him. And so just when she wakes up from the anesthetics, her husband comes and holds her and breaks the news to her that the retrieval was unsuccessful. The acting was incredible-I recognized the pain she was portraying. I know that hurt. I had to remind myself, again, that it's just a show so that I wouldn't do something crazy like send a letter of condolesences, a tub of icecream, and giant stuffed animal off to Angela Bassett (the actor who plays Dr. Banfeld).

Anyway, now you know what's in my head. I could go on and on. I haven't even touched on movies yet...Baby Mama...Juno...but I think I'll call it a night!