One Couple’s Journey Through Infertility Helps Others Understand Options and Cope with Feelings of Isolation, Shame and Stigma During National Infertility Awareness Week

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology reports that more than eight million babies have been born through in vitro fertilization (IVF) since the birth of Louise Brown, the world’s first “test-tube baby” in 1978.

Each of these couples has a story to tell, as approximately 12% of married women have trouble getting pregnant or sustaining a pregnancy. Noah Moskin and Maya Grobel are one of those couples. And they share the intimate details of their tumultuous journey to parenthood in a self-made feature length documentary film, One More Shot. The film has been seen in more than 40 countries and maintains a Facebook page with more than 2,500 followers, a two-time RESOLVE Hope Award-nominated blog, and a Google hit count of about 22,000. One More Shot can be accessed via Netflix, iTunes, Vimeo On Demand, Vudu, and Amazon.

“We hope that our story can normalize the different ways a family can be created and decrease the feelings of isolation, shame or stigma often associated with infertility,” says Maya. “After years of going through cycles of hope and disappointment with each new effort to become pregnant, we finally succeeded through embryo donation, in which a remaining frozen embryo produced by another couple during their IVF process years earlier was donated to us. Our mission through this film is to show what infertility really looks like behind closed doors and instill hope in the multiple paths to parenthood.”

The CDC defines infertility as not being able to conceive after one year or longer of unprotected sex. Because fertility in women is known to decline steadily with age, some reproductive health professionals evaluate and treat women aged 35 years or older after six months of trying. The reasons couples have trouble conceiving are many, and the scientific research on this topic has continued unabated for decades. Today, numerous options are available to couples.

Here are a few basic facts about infertility from Resolve.org:

• A couple between the ages 29-33 with a normal functioning reproductive system has only a 20-25% chance of conceiving in any given month. After six months of trying, 60% of couples will conceive without medical assistance.
• 7.4 million women, or 11.9% of women, have received infertility services in their lifetime.
• Approximately one-third of infertility is attributed to the female partner, one-third attributed to the male partner, and one-third is caused by a combination of problems in both partners or is unattributed.

“We relied on First Response pregnancy test kits along our journey to inform us quickly as to whether or not we had become pregnant,” adds Maya. “Couples who are having difficulty should consult a reproductive health professional as there’s a great deal of new reproductive science today, and many solutions are available for TTC couples.”

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