When you are ready to have a baby and you are 35 or younger, do this: Try for 12 months to have a baby on your own. Take your temperature, get the timing right, and don’t let anxiety override the fun. If you are 36 or older, try for six months. After that, you can talk to your ob/gyn, who might remind you that one out of eight adults experiences infertility, and suggest you visit a fertility clinic. As you prepare for this step, consider four important categories that will help you explore your options.

Meet a fertility superhero. Aprill Lane.

I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Kyle Tzanetis and I’m here to represent and support you; all the men involved in the fertility treatment journey. I feel honored to have 2 very special roles at RMA of Connecticut, I am both the Team Lead of Andrology and the Andrology Patient Liaison. Andrology is a field of medicine that is specific to male fertility and reproduction; a field in which I have been in for over 4 years now. As a firm believer that no person should be alone in infertility and family building process, these roles are a very good fit for me. Here’s what you should know...

In honor of Veterans Day, we asked Tyler and Crystal Wilson, who have worked tirelessly for necessary medical coverage for “wounded warriors” (military personnel injured in active service who have been denied fertility treatment, including in vitro fertilization), to use their voice as a shining example of how advocacy works. The Wilsons know, from their own personal experience, the pain and frustration of having injuries that make it impossible to have children without medical treatment due to active military service. Thank you, Tyler, both for your service to our country and to your fellow service people, regarding building a family after a debilitating injury.

One of the hardest decisions Dan and I faced during fertility treatment was making the transition from IUI (intrauterine insemination) to IVF (in vitro fertilization). I remember after failing our third round of IUI treatment (yes, I know, the politically correct way of putting this is, “after my third failed cycle”, but let’s face it, it felt like a personal failure when there was no positive pregnancy test!), my husband and I came face to face with a decision making moment: to pursue another round of IUI or bust out the big guns, moving ahead with IVF. There was a lot of time discussing this potentially life changing decision. We made tons of pros and cons lists because we wanted to ensure we were choosing the best option for the two of us and our situation. We considered lots of factors, but two kept rising to the top of importance: financial cost and our emotional sanity.

The seasons in our lives closely mirror those in the physical world. Each of us begin as babies, then children, then move into teenage years and then, after a time as young adults, we typically look at parenthood and family building.