That’s right. MTV, famous for their music videos reality tv shows like 16 and Pregnant and the follow up of Teen Mom did a documentary on infertility. Their documentary program True Life did an episode entitled “I’m Desperate to Have a Baby.” I don’t normally watch MTV, but word about the episode had gotten around my IF support groups pretty quickly, so I made sure to DVR it so I could watch it later.
I sat down to watch it on one of my days off and I only made it a few minutes in. I decided maybe I should wait until Jim was there with me so he could watch it too and I could get his input. I also felt that if I watched it alone, I would just get emotional and cry the entire time – if Jim was there then maybe I could control my emotions a little better. He was a little skeptical when I first brought it up to him, but I told him it might be a good idea to get a little perspective on what we would be going through in a couple of months.
The episode followed two different couples and their IVF journey. It didn’t go way in depth in terms of the clinical aspect of IVF, but I think it showed just enough. However, the portrayal of emotions that come with infertility and fertility treatments was very on point. These couples were incredibly brave for allowing a very intimate part of their lives be broadcast to thousands of people on t.v.
Each couple’s story is very different, one couple dealing with it for about 6 years and the other for about 2 1/2, but they are headed for the same goal: to hopefully achieve a pregnancy that they, for some reason or another, couldn’t achieve on their own. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about each couples story, I think you should take some time and watch it on your own. Like I said, you won’t finish the episode with a complete understanding of what IVF is, but you are definitely going to get a taste of what infertile couples deal with on a daily basis.
Enjoy, and I’d love feedback on what you thought of the episode. I will post the link for the full episode on MTV.com or try to catch a repeat of the episode on MTV!
MTV’s True Life: I’m Desperate to Have a Baby
http://www.mtv.com/videos/true-life-im-desperate-to-have-a-baby/1711687/playlist.jhtml
Finding Fertility 