What to Do When You Can't Get Pregnant: The Complete Guide to All the Options for Couples Facing Fertility Issues

by Daniel A. Potter and Jennifer S. Hanin

Book Overview

The complete guide to all the options for couples facing fertility issues, now revised and updated

Newsweek praised What to Do When You Can't Get Pregnant for guiding readers through "the medical maze" of infertility treatments. In this completely revised and updated edition, world renowned fertility expert Dr. Daniel A. Potter and journalist Jennifer Hanin have revised their step-by-step guide to walk readers through their best...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738216917
• ISBN13: 9780738216911
• Release Date: November 2013
• Publisher: Balance
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Refreshing with Heartfelt Advice

I've tried reading several infertility books in the past, and while some seemed promising they were either too technical or too autobiographical. It wasn't until I broke down in tears to a friend that she recommended a new book, What to Do When You Can't Get Pregnant. I ordered this book and have been thanking her ever since. It's a huge improvement over some of the other books I've read and it really did speak to me and my husband. This was important to us because many of the books were either over our head or coming from a personal perspective that didn't resonate with us. But this wasn't the case with this book. It's comprehensive, encouraging, interesting and taught us things about our body and our condition that we would have never known. For years, we blamed ourselves and often times each other but this book showed us that our situation isn't our fault. This made a huge difference in how we view ourselves and each other and it helped us get back on the same page. No matter what fertility method you're using the section on communication is priceless. Another issue this book has helped us deal with is family and friends and how to handle the stress surrounding not being able to conceive. We've been TTC for five years and many times have gotten fed up with the constant concern over our problem. This book was the first one to let us know that we don't have to tell anyone anything and that what we disclose is entirely up to us. This was a huge relief to us because by limiting the information flow we now get along better with our loved ones. We're half way into our IVF cycle and are re-reading this book as we complete our round. It's an incredible resource and we're glad we didn't have to do it alone. Thanks a million! We highly recommend it!

Excellent! Saved Our Marriage!

This book is everything the Library Journal Review said it would be and more. My wife ran across the review and couldn't stop talking about it. Here's some highlights straight from LJR (and also why we bought it): "From natural family planning to high-tech methods like in vitro fertilization (IVF) and zygote and gamete intrafallopian transfers, this easy-to-read, empathic guide covers every option for infertile couples wishing to conceive-and much more...Other topics include sperm and egg donation; embryo donation and surrogacy; technologies that allow prescreening for genetic diseases, sex selection, and preselection of desirable traits; keeping a relationship healthy; deciding when to move on; and the role that legal and mental health professionals play in all these processes....This solid, up-to-date resource supplants Debra Fulghum Bruce and Samuel Thatcher's Making a Baby: Everything You Need To Know To Get Pregnant." We have been going through some trying times as we sought to overcome our infertility and this book gave us the tools to not only understand the process but to navigate the ins and outs and ups and downs of treatment. Relationships have a way of drifting apart during treatment and this book gave us the life raft we needed to stay together and work it out. We highly recommend this book. If you don't have it, buy it now!

Two Thumbs Up! Easy-to-Read, Informative & Reassuring

This book is excellent! All I have to say is that the reviewer from Maine is either sadly misinformed or trashing it out of spite. Potter and Hanin did an excellent job writing this book and if the reviewer that dogged it actually read it she would agree too. If this book was bad or confusing, do you really think one of the top fertility patient advocates in the country (and possible the world), Pamela Madsen, the Founder & Executive Director of the American Fertility Association, would have penned the forward? I don't think so. Trust me, anyone who has something negative to say about What to Do When You Can't Get Pregnant has a personal agenda that has NOTHING to do with getting pregnant. If you want to understand the fertility process in easy-to-read language but you also want a comprehensive book that gives you everything you need to know and more about reducing stress, keeping your relationships healthy and what your spouse is going through during the entire ordeal -- BUY this book. It is without a doubt a MUST READ. I can't tell you how much it's helped my husband and me. We're gearing up for our first cycle and it's been our bible.

Required Reading For Anyone with Infertility

My wife and I have one child with CF and even though we desperately want another we only recently decided to do it. We owe much of our newfound decision to the authors of What to Do When You Get Pregnant. The chapter on PDG (preimplantation genetic Diagnosis) answered all the questions we had about pre-genetic testing and gave us optimism to try again. We will rely on this book heavily as we begin the IVF process and will recommend it to everyone we know with fertility issues.

This is the one to buy

This book is EXCELLENT and packed with all the information couples need to know when diving into fertility treatment. We had an especially hard time getting pregnant and after trying for several years considered egg donors and surrogates. We soon learned that this option left us with numerous questions that other books didn't sufficiently address. The chapter on third party reproduction taught us everything we needed to know. Learning about other people's experiences including families who used a surrogate and hearing from a surrogate herself (and her husband) made us feel more at ease about the road ahead. The book not only answered all our questions but also emphasized areas that we hadn't thought about like finding the right professional team to make our path seamless. We also were undecided about telling our future children how they came into the world but were pleased to find that this book has an entire chapter dedicated to the subject. My wife and I recommend this book without reservation. It covered the IVF process the way we remembered it better than all the books we read. We have given What to Do When You Can't Get Pregnant to a number of friends, and it's one of the few we would endorse.