With “Fertility” Businesses Booming, Is Now the Time to Go Long on Kleenex?
It’s no secret that I was unable to get pregnant during my prime child-bearing years. What I possess today (and didn’t have when I was 29 and just embarking on what became a prolonged medical mystery...
View ArticleCustomers or Patients? What Happens When Doctors See Markets Not People
This week marks a year since Miriam Zoll and I authored The New York Times op-ed “Selling the Fantasy of Fertility.” The piece, which has since been nominated for a 2014 EMMA Exceptional Merit in...
View ArticleWhen Did Normal Aging Become an Infertility Condition?
Come again? Did I read that wrong? Hasn’t aging always been synonymous with losing fertility? Menopause, anyone? Seems odd to call out normal aging as though it’s a disease (infertility) or a condition...
View ArticleWIRED Reframes Egg Freezing Debate
Egg freezing inadvertently gave birth to a much bigger set of conversations. It began when the business and technology press turned its sights on the topic prompted by news from Apple and Facebook....
View ArticleWorlds Collide (In a Good Way)
There are pros and cons to having two personas. For my entire career in the auto and tech worlds my business cards and email signatures have read Pamela Mahoney. I’m rather attached to my given name...
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Male Call: The Head Cannot Heal the Heart
Editor’s Note: When it comes to matters of the heart, there’s nothing quite so comforting and validating as discovering you’re not alone in teasing out complicated emotions. Whether in the blogosphere...
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Our Modern Day Betty Friedan Moment
Is this all? Those three little words — Betty Friedan’s simple question — went on to define an era. Her book, The Feminine Mystique, arrived on February 19, 1963. Per The New York Times Back Story:...
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Two Wiser Women On Society and Motherhood
Welcome to all on the virtual book tour for Life Without Baby: Surviving and Thriving When Motherhood Doesn’t Happen. (Don’t have your copy yet? You can get one here. Don’t worry, we’ll wait…) ~~...
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Investigative Journalists Need Your Help
Editor’s Note: I’ve had several requests from journalists about important projects that need your help. Share, won’t you — via your blogs, Twitter and other social media platforms of choice? Journalist...
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Fertility Treatment Cancer Links, Rethinking IVF Funding
Fertility treatment, IVF and third-party reproduction have been in the headlines the past few weeks. Following is a recap. The reporting, I think you’ll agree, was particularly revealing and...
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#StartAsking About Conflict of Interests
I like a good cause as much as the next person so long as there are no conflict of interests. In fact, I’m pretty much a softie when it comes to forking over cash or signing a Change.org petition to...
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Room for Dissent on IVF?
Should IVF Coverage Be Mandatory? Writer Christina Gombar first posed this provocative question in 2009. In a stand against RESOLVE’s stated goal to “control the conversation,” she agreed to let me...
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Biological Clock and the Capitalizing of Fertility Fears
Moira Weigel’s essay in The Guardian, The foul reign of the biological clock, casts new light on a little explored but powerful cultural phenomenon. It also revealed the fertility industry’s long...
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The Exhilaration of Acceptance
It doesn’t matter what age, what ethnicity, what country we hail from — we all desire respect, acknowledgment and acceptance. This very human need manifests itself on playgrounds, in communities and in...
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Unspoken Reproductive Medicine Reality: Facing Life Without Children When It...
Eight years ago this week I emerged from obscurity because of faulty reproductive organs and the failure of reproductive medicine. My introduction onto the world stage for a prolonged, painful...
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Strong? Stronger Than Ever, Thank You Very Much
Strong? You want strong? I nominate women who stop or forego risk-laden IVF treatment. They are as far as you can get from the widespread narrative that they are weak, pitiful creatures who couldn’t...
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Jennifer Aniston: Yes, Motherhood Obsession Needs to Stop
Jennifer Aniston grabbed the spotlight this week in a fiercely worded Huffington Post piece. In 913 words she accomplished what many women (yours truly among them) have spent years trying to do: bring...
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How Honest Talk About Infertility Breaks Down Barriers
You want to talk about a loaded topic? There are few disclosures as emotionally charged as admitting that you were unable to conceive children. If you think it’s awkward for a woman, try wading into...
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Let’s Start An Avalanche …
What a summer it’s been for opening up new conversations and tackling taboo topics. So many important journalism projects percolating and good things taking place. (Thanks, all, for your generous time...
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Mark Your Calendar: Avalanche Blog Book Tour
Mark your calendar for a collaborative discussion in our corner of the blogosphere. As mentioned over a few previous posts, we’ll be reading and discussing Avalanche, a new memoir. In the words of...
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