From when you’re a teenager right up until you’re old enough to be a grandmother, people will give you advice about your fertility – even when you didn’t ask! Why does this often start with the word “Just…”?
As a woman, how many times have you heard:
Just don’t come home pregnant, your dad will lose his mind. Just remember to take your pill every morning. Just don’t sleep around & you won’t have to worry about it. Just slow it down, don’t get too serious too quickly. Just remember, you have plenty of time for all of this. Just don’t ruin your life like she did. Just her and the baby in that tiny flat. Just a waste of potential really. Just threw her life away.
Just focus on your studies. Just get your qualifications first. Just get to know each other. Just save up and get a house before you start worrying about babies. Just wait another year for the promotion. Just got married have you? Just don’t keep us hanging around too long for grandchildren, OK?
Just relax, you’re overthinking it. Just go on holiday, it’ll happen. Just keep trying, that’s the fun part! Just enjoy the peace while it lasts! Just enjoy your lie-ins while you can. Just hurry up a bit though, time’s getting on.
Just get that checked out. Just to make sure. Just sit tight, I’ll ring the hospital. Just don’t blame yourself, that’s all. Just try to breathe. Just remember, everything happens for a reason. Just try again when you’re ready. Just a bit of advice, don’t keep that photo on the side like that. Just a bit morbid, that’s all. Just need to move on. Just need a holiday or something. Just the two of you.
Just do some yoga. Just lose a bit of weight. Just lose a bit more weight. Just cut out alcohol, caffeine and dairy. Just get him checked out too just in case. Just get yourself fit. Just don’t overdo it with the running though. Just don’t get too thin, that’s all.
Just talk to the doctor. Just choose a clinic. Just do the IVF. Just a needle, that’s all. Just your hormones. Just have another cycle as soon as you can. Just save up! Just borrow it off your Mum. Just take out a loan. Just sell the car.
Just use donor eggs! Just, I don’t know, get a surrogate like that woman off the telly did. Just adopt! Just playing Devil’s Advocate, that’s all. Just saying. Just give it another go. Just my opinion. Just give up. Just a waste of time. Just accept it. Just too old. Just wasn’t meant to be then, was it.
“Just” is a short story about fertility issues, commissioned by NUA Fertility
We’re a female-led, science-focused company, and we’re passionate about empowering people to choose when they start a family.
People use the word “just” when they’re trying to minimise something and make it seem less important. Many people aren’t that comfortable talking about fertility, and that shows when they try to give you advice! We wanted to put across how frustrating this is for people struggling with fertility problems because it can feel like nobody understands.
Freedom, fertility and science
Before contraception was available, women’s lives were heavily limited by their fertility. You can now choose when you don’t want to be pregnant – but science is only part-way towards giving women total freedom to choose when they do. 1 in 7 women will still struggle with infertility at some point in their life.
In the tradition of science empowering women to take control of their fertility, we’ve gone to the most cutting-edge area of human biology for answers.
If you are currently having trouble getting pregnant, then you’ll know it’s not always obvious why, or precisely what the answer is. Fertility doesn’t really have an “on” or “off” switch. The more we learn about the human body, the more we realise how astonishing, complex and often delicate the processes of conception and pregnancy are.
Nuabiome Women is a cutting-edge, pro-fertility supplement, based on some of the newest and most exciting discoveries in human biology. We’re not going to try to sell you our product by waving pots of it around and telling you how great it is. We’re going to tell you something truly amazing about your own body instead.
There are one hundred trillion microbes in your stomach and intestines, and they’re all alive! They affect things like your mood, your weight, diseases, your energy levels, and even how fast you age and how long you could live. They can also affect your fertility. This is not science fiction – it’s real science, and it’s going to impact all of us in the future.
We’re many years away from the dream of treating things like obesity and allergies with microbe-based medicine. But we now are able to actually see some of the strong connections between the microbiome and fertility. From these incredible discoveries, we were able to create a pre-natal fertility supplement designed to improve the balance of gut bacteria for women who want to be more fertile.
If you’ve enjoyed reading the story and why we commissioned it, why not follow us on Facebook & Instagram for more, or head over to our website for more information on the microbiome and fertility.
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