Infertility and Difficult Conception Book List

PCOS and Your Fertility

Have you ever had irregular periods? Do you find that you're always putting on weight? Do you feel harried, emotional, and upbeat one minute, but down the next? Or do you struggle with adult acne or excess facial and body hair? It's possible that you have PCOS. Tackling this specific but polymorphous cause of difficulty in conceiving, PCOS and Your Fertility is written by two health journalists who also have polycystic ovarian syndrome. They know whereof they write.

Unsung Lullabies

The co-founders of The Center for Reproductive Psychology in San Diego, California, are all mental health professionals who also were personally affected by infertility. They put together their combined histories, psychiatric training, and clinical experiences and wrote Unsung Lullabies: Understanding and Coping with Infertility.

The book deals heavily with the sense of grief and loss that couples struggling with infertility face, and yet, according to one reviewer, still "highlight the idea that there are many potential outcomes and that it is possible to move past the pain." Including many real-life stories and coping mechanisms, Unsung Lullabies received unanimous reader acclaim.

Wanting Another Child

BabyZone's Ericka Lutz wrote this Amazon review: Secondary infertility is often a "hidden" issue, and couples suffering from the inability to have another wanted child often feel caught in the netherworld between the childless infertile and parents of larger families. Harriet Fishman Simons, a clinician specializing in fertility issues and a support group leader for Resolve, an advocacy group for infertile individuals, has been involved in infertility issues for over 20 years. In her book Wanting Another Child: Coping with Secondary Infertility, Simons discusses the plight of the secondarily infertile—the awkwardness of being among infertile couples without children, the pain of watching other families conceive again. The book takes a broad-based look at an issue that is becoming more common as more couples rely on fertility treatments to form their families.

Simons weaves personal stories with theory and sociological data. She includes chapters on social and emotional issues (the effects of secondary infertility on the couple as well as friends, family, and coworkers), parenting during secondary infertility issues (helping children cope with their parent's secondary infertility), and possible resolutions to and strategies for coping with secondary infertility. Simons's style may be academic, but the information and message is not, and this book is a welcome addition to a new subfield of study.