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Finally Heard: A Silent Sorority Finds Its Voice

Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos emerged as a reluctant spokeswoman on infertility after a health reporter fromThe New York Timesasked if she’d be willing to openly discuss her IVF treatment experience. Tsigdinos discussed the stubborn persistence of infertility and the lack of a cultural framework to process the losses. An accompanying health feature story produced astonishment and relief that someone candidly addressed the trauma and legacy of infertility. Soon thereafter she wrote the award-winning bookSilent Sorority. It became the first infertility memoir not authored by a mother, Tsigdinos' writing explored the complicated, disenfranchised grief and identity issues following prolonged failed attempts to conceive. Now outside of the grief she once felt so viscerally, Tsigdinos brings usFinally Heard: The Silent Sorority Finds Its Voice. In an intentionally short ebook designed in the Kindle Singles model, it incorporates wisdom from ‘Generation IVF.’Finally Heardis meant to spark discussion about the little discussed aftermath of fertility treatments. It moves beyond the personal to examine the complex inter-relationship of the psychological, social and cultural effects. Today’s cultural preoccupation with parenting and the growth focused for-profit fertility industry has birthed a fear-driven patient/consumer population and society ill-equipped to process reproductive failure. Tsigdinos makes clear that the disproportionate emphasis on ‘magical thinking’ and the industry focus on 'social egg freezing' has bred an expectation of parenthood. This creates new challenges and decisions not only for women but for parents who may one day be called upon to counsel children on decisions around reproductive health.Read more

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