Although for many women the first Sunday in May is a reason for celebration, for others, like María Sánchez, the Mother’s Day It is a reminder of the difficulties she faced in order to conceive, an economically and emotionally costly process that, to this day, continues to be largely unknown due to the social taboo of infertility.
In an interview, María said that, after trying to conceive naturally, she chose to go to the public health before privatesince the treatments are expensive and sometimes patients must take out bank loans to finance them.
The infertility It is defined as the inability of an individual to have offspring naturally and is a disease recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) that affects some 186 million people worldwide, according to the Spanish Fertility Society.
In Spain it is estimated that approximately one in every six couples of reproductive age has issues to have children (between 15% and 20%).
The price of being a mother
The process of trying to become a mother through public health consisted, according to María, of seven years of long waiting listsslow procedures and a serious shortage of tests and treatments that did not lead to a specific diagnosis.
“First you have to go to the family doctor and, once you manage to treat with infertility specialists, they begin to do all the necessary tests, but the path is very long. This means that you either start very early in the search for a child either age plays against of the woman, because you have an ovarian reserve that is depleting,” he explained.
Age is one of the factors that most affects a woman’s fertility because, according to some scientific studies, ovarian reserve of women decreases significantly after the age of 35 and, from the age of 40, it is compromised until it is completely exhausted, which usually occurs between the ages of 45 and 55.
According to official data published by the Institute of Statistics and Cartography of Andalusia (IECA), the average age at which women begin to try to achieve motherhood is 32 yearswhich points to a progressive delay in the fertility calendar.
“I spent seven years waiting for a diagnosis that never came, so in the end I ended up going to the Private sanity. Not out of pleasure, but out of necessity, because time is ticking, although it is something that at first you reject, because you know that it will mean a great financial sacrifice,” says María Sánchez.
The different treatments applied in case of infertility can have a significant economic difference. For example, while artificial insemination can cost between 700 and 1,100 euros, the price of in vitro fertilization can rise to 3,500 or 5,500.
Sánchez warns of the dangers that exist within private medicine because, faced with the desperation of many couples, some clinics may “seek economic benefit” without taking into account the quality of the service provided.
The great unknown
In addition to being affected by female infertility, María is also the spokesperson for Asproin, the National Association for Infertility Problemsan organization that aims to raise awareness about infertility because, according to Sánchez, it is still “the great unknown.”
“What people demand most is information, to talk to someone who knows what they are going through. In society this issue remains a tabooEven in the meetings that we organize from the association, it is very difficult for them to come and tell their situation,” he explained.
The health psychologist María Balbás, who has treated women and their partners who suffer from this problem in her office in Seville, has explained that the silence that many maintain couples can affect its members, who tend to blame each other due to a “feeling of failure.”
According to the psychologist, the daily life of these women is “clearly affected” due to a guilty feeling due to a biological disability that makes them feel that they are “incomplete” or “badly made” and an influence from their social circle.
“Activities that could previously be rewarding, such as an outing with friends or a family meal, can now be a challenge.” Intense painbecause interacting with these people means seeing small children or asking questions about when you are going to have children,” the expert explained.
Balbás emphasizes that the patients suffer “continuous grief” due to the frustration that generates the inability to conceive and that from psychology there is no specific protocol, but instead an individualized therapy must be applied and focused on “validating the emotions” generated during this “complex process.”
