Woman’s Hour presenter Emma Barnett opened up about her struggle to conceive a second child.
The broadcaster and journalist told The Times that during many grueling rounds of IVF, she suffered a miscarriage. Four years ago, after just one round of IVF, Emma gave birth to her only son, but five other attempts to have a second child have since failed.
Recent research, carried out by the campaign group Fertility Matters at Work, shows that fertility issues affect up to one in seven people of working age. It also revealed that 69.5% of those who chose to take sick leave during fertility treatment instead of requesting time off to avoid alerting their work colleagues.
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Emma, 37, the voice of Woman’s Hour, has chosen to speak out about her devastating experiences in a bid to publicly support others who may have faced similar difficulties and setbacks while trying to conceive. MEN reports that she said, “Over the past 18 months, I’ve battled secondary infertility. I’ve had five rounds of IVF, one miscarriage, and more internal exams than I can remember.
“There’s still no second baby. My tummy is definitely empty and I’m reporting to you live from the front lines of failure in the hope that it might be helpful and to be honest.”
The former BBC Newsnight presenter, who recently announced she was stepping down from the role after three years, added: “I know there will be people reading this, women and men, who will think: you have a child, what more do you want? ? I agree, up to a point, and I almost didn’t write this accordingly.
“I remember I didn’t have kids and resented people like me. Especially the couple we once saw bringing their baby to the IVF clinic.
“But I learned that secondary infertility is also very real and traumatic. I seek neither sympathy nor pity; I’m sharing my story in hopes it will help more people understand and explore what motivates us to keep trying.
Three cycles of IVF is often the recommended number. As well as the phycological damage caused, it can also be an expensive process, if NHS treatment is not accessible or all has been used up, with prices ranging from around £3,500 to over £7,000.
Sometimes Emma thought wanting a second child was greedy. However, she realized that this was a toxic idea because “effortlessly fertile people rarely have to justify their desire to have as many children as they see fit”.
She continued, “But once you experience infertility, you are changed. Humbled, grateful, angry and saddened by it all.”
The difficult nature of the situation is evidenced by the fact that she had to go to the hospital every morning at 5:55 a.m. for blood tests before the morning briefing at Woman’s Hour, and ” come together to present the 75th special edition of the program, having just learned that I had lost another embryo”.
Emma added: “But you have to keep going, in silence. There are many reasons why women, both fertile and infertile, don’t talk in the workplace about trying to get pregnant, but one of the main ones is fear for our jobs.”
She said that at the start of her IVF treatment she was also diagnosed with endometriosis, a painful condition that causes tissue similar to the lining of the uterus to grow elsewhere, such as the ovaries. After falling pregnant, after a fifth round of treatment, shortly before Christmas last year, she miscarried nine weeks later, dashing the new hope that the holiday season had brought.
Far from giving up hope, Emma and her husband have agreed to try again and will soon begin their seventh cycle of IVF treatment. She hopes to act as an “IVF fairy” to those going through the same experiences so they don’t have to feel alone. Emma said: “I just hope that sharing my experience while this is happening can help someone else to try, fail and try again”.
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