Mother Talk Review: The Fertility Journal

As hard candy coated as my exterior often is when it comes to guides for reproduction, I will confess to being genuinely anticipatory about getting my mitts on The Fertility Journal: A Day-by-Day Guide to getting Pregnant.

You may be surprised to note that I have been known to flip jauntily through the pages of Conceive magazine at the RE’s office and find some good kernels of information. But sometimes it could feel like the magazine was for the overly optimistic or the blatantly married or the beautifully hopeful. So I knew full well, before the book even arrived, that it most likely would not be catering to someone like me.

The book arrived and my first thought was, “oh! Nice & sturdy!” Followed by, “This will never fit in my purse.” So while the actual book is nice and firm, (something my ass only aspires to) I can’t imagine toting it around for all the Universe to see unless I concocted some uber swank book cover comprised of “I Voted” & Chiquita Banana stickers.

The Fertility Journal begins with your basic reproduction prologue. There are the familiar cartoon drawings of both the male and female reproductive doo-dads, and the gentle reminders to curb your coffee and booze intake. It assumes you know nothing about preparing your body for a pregnancy- and most people don’t. So the reminders are good for those folks. For the rest of us seeing an adorable bubble block exclaiming how NOW is the time to lose weight might be a wee bit off-setting. The prologue is also where we are informed that 8 months is the average time it takes for most women to conceive.

Here is now where I will pretend that I am NOT myself, but one of the aforementioned “most women“. Goodbye rhinestone rockabilly sunglasses and hello rose-colored Newbie shades. I am now transported back to a time and place where I have never heard of an OPK and Camilla and Charles are getting ready to tie the knot. (seems just like yesterday)

I would have been really interested in the first section of the book. The basic explanation of how an average cycle works, what exactly ovulation is, and how my body will give me clues as to when it is happening. I would have had no idea that the monthly clear liquid sludge in my underpants had any function other than occasional humorous thoughts of Ghostbusters.

The book is divided into months and each month has a theme. Month one is all about preparing yourself for conception. There is a space to jot down what medications you are taking as well as ample room for notes or questions that you might have at your “I’d like to have a baby now, please”, doctor’s check up. The journal gives you a space to keep track of what cycle day you are on and what your basal body temperature was. Then there is a block of white space with the prompt “Notes:”. I wonder what a Newbie would need to use all that space for. I imagine my Newbie journal would just be a bunch of sick doodles of baby names.

Scattered through out the section are big, bold blocks of text that say, “looking ahead to pregnancy”. In Month 1 we learn how we should have a prenatal visit as soon as we get a positive pregnancy test. I bet Newbie me would have dog eared that page and made a mental note to be prompt for her prenatal appointment.

As we move through the months learning our lessons on nutrition, bad habits, how to improve the fertility of your “baby making partner”, and preparing for parenthood (to name a few) it all becomes a bit repetitious and clunky. The prettiness starts to fade and the book feels so heavy.

Then I realize- it’s 12 months of cycles. 12. That is 141 pages of blissful optimism before we get to what I think is the best part of the journal- the “When you need a little help” section. Here there is a good bit of information on typical infertility diagnoses and recommended treatment options. I was really into the well written and easy to digest explanations when I was hit by another one of those big notes in the margin: “85% – the number of patients who can be treated successfully by a reproductive endocrinologist with simple medication or surgical repair”. Is that really something you want to look at when you reach this part of the book?

Number of assisted cycles that this journal feels you need to document: 2

Honestly this is the most useful section of this journal. There is plenty of room to organize your appointments or sketch out follicle sizes. Each day has a handy column to help you keep track of your medication and when to take it and how much. It is incredibly useful and simple. But I have to wonder- how good will it feel to carry around this journal with 12 months of failures proceeding it? And what happens when you try more than 12 times before moving on to medicated cycles? Or what if you do more than 2 medicated cycles?

There is a thin pocket on the back hardcover. It’s a nice gesture, but if you look at the photo above (my lovely collection of cycle notes, sperm donor profiles, and IVF paperwork) it isn’t exactly designed to be functional. It’s really a shame that they only put their finger on what we need. If only they had published a small number of these books for IF veterans to test drive first. We SO could have schooled them on what we could use.

That being said- if you have someone in your circle of friends that is just starting out. As in JUST tossed the birth control or ditched the condoms, then this would be an ideal book to endorse for them. I am envious of them! Hopefully the publishers will make a version 2.0 that is for the rest of us. There is absolutely a need for a concise, discreet, journal to keep track of all of the paperwork and notes that we collect for each cycle. I hope there is something already in the works!

QUESTION: If you could put a message in a bottle and send it back in time to be received by you during your first trying cycle what would you tell yourself?

More information about The Fertility Journal:

Publisher’s website

Conceive’s website

Amazon link