For each of us who has walked through the door of a fertility clinic it is a momentous moment that carries so many complex emotions. Embarking on the process of fertility treatment requires trust, resilience and hope. We walk through that door and into a world of numbers and percentages where the odds are much better than they were forty years ago but they are still against us. But we cross that threshold as human beings with dreams and with each footstep we are hoping that we will be the one in three.
In 2014 52,288 women – on their own or with partners – walked through the door of a fertility clinic and had 67,708 cycles of IVF. A third of them would get the result they so desired. [Stats: HFEA 2016]
Fifty Thousand Dreams
Who will hold our hopes beyond this door?
How many breaths are taken here?
How many heartbeats quickened
by disbelief, desire or despair?
Watch us cross this threshold.
Count our footsteps.
Deborah Sloan
Raising funds for Fertility Network UK during National Fertility Awareness Week.
Just Giving Page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/deborah-sloan
Without Issue 
Hi D, congratulations on the launch 🚀 of this week of poem writing. One thing I wanted to share with you about my own experience – in Edinburgh, the hospital department was called ‘The Infertility Clinic’ bringing with it it’s own judgement of defeat as you walked through its doors. I’ve never forgotten that leaden feeling.
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Hi Elaine, thank you so much for sharing your experience here. I totally agree that these ‘labels’ can make things feel worse. And thanks for the words of support. x
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