male infertility in the media - how does it affect you?

[rocketandroll]

Hi all


I know it's just hyper-sensitivity to the subject due to personal circumstance but, it does seem like there are an awful lot of references to male infertility in TV shows recently?

Case in point: Gavin & Stacey (sorry for any non UK readers, it's a popular UK sit-com)... as soon as they started the whole 'trying for a baby' story, I could see it coming (sorry, no pun intended). And sure enough... no baby, due to low sperm count.

Now I have to say, in comparison with some of the other 'jokes' about the subject that I've seen on TV recently they seem to be dealing with it fairly well on G&S so far... but I still find it really hard to watch these things, it just brings it all back.

Does anyone else find it really hard to deal with dramatic portrayals of infertility on TV? Tell me it's not just me?



Ben

[robbyb]

Actually, yeah, my wife loves the show and I (grudgingly) admit that's it OK.
But we've actually been quite impressed with how they've dealt with the infertility plot-line.  No jokes around infertility, just a few character portrayal funnys.

I thought it was a categorical good thing that infertility, especially male infertility, is being brought to the forefront of public awareness and it is being (reasonably) well portrayed as distressing, depressing and thoroughly glum.

Admittedly, it's a (very) light hearted romatic-comedy show which scratches the surface like a feather scratches steel but it is still doing good, I'm sure of it.

My only reservation is that, having (as you did) think I could see the story arc a mile off, I went on the BBC website and looked at the synopsis of the next two episodes.

Episode 5:     Gavin has a heart to heart with his dad and finds out some surprising things.
Episode 6:     Stacey has some life changing information for Gavin.

So, what a surprise, they find out they're infertile in episode 4 and by episode 6 she's pregnant.  What it ultimately ends up teaching the world is that, distressing as infertility is, it's easy to sort out in a couple of light hearted 30 minute episodes.

Roll on Series 4: Gavin and Stacey and Baby.

[chrisd]

I only occasionally watch this and strangely enough I ended up watching this episode as nothing else was on.

I must admit I thought they handled it quite well and I thought the scene with James Corden offering his services was very funny.

It seems that infertility is everywhere at the moment and it is good that it is being highlighted on the box as it seems to be effecting so many people and the more that are aware of it the better it can be.

A lot of people probably hide away and would never get themselves tested, hopefully this will change.

Chris

[rocketandroll]

I feel kinda awkward having brought this subject up now.... especially using Gavin and Stacy as an example.

We watched the last episode the other day and it was a little bit scary how it mirrored exactly what had happened to us.


I guess TV will always portray the scenario (no matter how far fetched) that gets the best audience reaction... and I guess it CAN happen like that.


I do wonder though, how much research these TV shows do into a subject like infertility before they run a story like that.



Ben

[robbyb]

I felt horribly let down by that scene.

I hope you, Ben, won't feel offended when I say I think it was all far too twee.

Too perfect and too dismissive.  It seemed to say "Oh, infertility is awful!  But, don't worry; if you just wait long enough it'll all just happen anyway!" They couldn't risk their watchers feeling too uncomfortable watching it so they did the fairy-tale ending.  It irritated me a little.

I wish there was something out there that brought infertility into the public eye and made people face up to it, didn't allow them to turn a blind eye, and didn't just bottle it by dressing it up with a happy ending.

Having said that, if someone did make that film/sitcom/drama/book, I probably wouldn't read/watch it!