Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember much from my sex education at school. What I do remember is some labelling of anatomy diagrams and our biology teacher trying to explain periods, getting flustered and mumbling something about making sure we disposed of our pads properly in the bin. Suffice it to say I’ve learnt a lot about my own bloody body in the past few years which I am fairly sure I should have already known. However, in talking to friends it appears I am not the only one with substandard knowledge of reproduction and the reproductive system, so buckle up as I’m going to attempt to explain in my idiots guide to making babies. Enjoy.
Continue reading “The idiots guide to making babies (Or how on earth did any of us get here anyway?)”Unsolicited advice (Or fuck the actual fuck off)
Today I’m in Africa on holiday, Namibia to be precise, and I just had an experience I have had many times before from different well meaning people. It gave me the way to start this post, the title of which has been in my head for over 2 years and is essentially what I would like to reply to all the unsolicited advice and comments I have received over the past few years and have instead (mainly) just smiled politely. Let’s begin.
Continue reading “Unsolicited advice (Or fuck the actual fuck off)”Getting away from it all – or can you?
Sometimes there is nothing like a break to give you a new perspective on things. Life over the last two years especially has felt like it has been partially on hold as we went through IVF treatment, particularly because in my case I was travelling very frequently for treatment due to the short length of my cycles and the amount that were cancelled part way through for various reasons.
Continue reading “Getting away from it all – or can you?”Please leave your modesty at the door…
So you’ve been trying to get pregnant for a while, and it hasn’t worked. You’ve decided to go to the doctors and see if there is anything actually wrong and they’ve referred you for a fertility check. This all feels like things are moving forward finally and so you’re quite excited to go to the appointment and see if there’s something actually ‘wrong’ with you or if you just need to be a bit more patient / eat more greens / do more yoga / drink foul chinese herbs (more about that in another post)
Continue reading “Please leave your modesty at the door…”The (fertility) ages of woman. By Bryony (age 43 1/2)
Age: 12- 14 (aka ‘becoming a woman’- urgh)
I mean, holy shit. What is this? Am I dying? Oh god no. Surely not already? Oh this is embarrassing. How can I do swimming now? Oh I’ve never been so embarrassed dropping Tampax in front of all the boys. What is the Tampax lady going on about? Does everyone know? How? How does everyone know? Can you tell I’m now a ‘woman’? What does that even MEAN? This sucks. Why doesn’t the biology teacher ever speak in clear sentences? What does she mean, and why are we constantly drawing everyone’s insides and labelling them? I’m glad I’m dropping biology….
(yes, dear reader, perhaps this was the issue…)
Continue reading “The (fertility) ages of woman. By Bryony (age 43 1/2)”A weighty matter
Let’s be honest. If you are anything like me (God help you) you’re probably carrying a least a few more pounds than you’d like. Unfortunately in my case due to my general love of good food and wine (mmm wine) this amounts to more than just a few.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a tub of lard stuffing my face with McDonald’s on the sofa every day. But cheese, hummus and wine probably form more of my regular menu than they should. Continue reading “A weighty matter”