Good afternoon! I am reporting to you LIVE from the Blogosphere! I am JJ, your Male Factor / Donor Insemination clicker! I am here to serve YOU! Breaking news I need to know about? Have an issue that needs a tissue? Let me help you get the word out! I have about 12 MF blogs I read regularly, but there may be more out there that I don't know about. Is it you? Or do you know someone who needs to be "clicked"? Leave a comment or email me! I will get the news over to Mel for the Lost and Found Connection!Now back to your regularly scheduled programing....
In other news:
I have had time over the past few days to think about "paying it forward" after watching the O episode...and I am doing 2 things. One I am still working on, but here is the 1st attempt in my goal to educate. Let me know your thoughts...
Dear Editors,
I am one of many.
Many that need support. I am speaking on behalf of a group of women and men that are dealing with the big "I" word: infertility.
I recently watched a re-aired segment from January of this year on Women in their 30's where you profiled a young woman, Jenna who wants nothing more than to be a mother. I am a woman who has been touched by her courage and strength to come on the Oprah show to talk about her journey. My husband and I are also dealing with infertility. For us, our story is a little different-but yet our goal is the same as Jenna's and her husbands: to become parents. My husband and I are dealing with male factor issues being the main cause as to why we are struggling to have biological children.
My request is that the team at the Oprah show and magazine let our voice be heard. I want to help educate and offer support to any woman and/or man struggling to have a child and to educate people about the hardships infertile couples face. Please consider contacting me to do a feature story. I am very willing to share our journey through the road of fertility treatments.
My husband and I believe that by educating people about a condition that affects 2.1 million couples in the United States will help those who might not know what options (such as ART treatments/adoption/foster care/child-free living)would be best for them. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Response from O's team:
Dear JJ,
Your message is important to us. Unfortunately, due to the volume of e-mail messages we receive every day, we cannot guarantee that you'll receive a personal response.
Thanks again for writing to us!
Sincerely,
The Oprah.com Staff
www.oprah.com
Cross your fingers I get a "personal response"....
Way to go! Maybe you will get through to O and make a difference.
ReplyDeleteGreat letter! I hope they take notice.
ReplyDeleteYou ROCK! I am so happy to see that you've taken the time to put something personal together. I love that you are willing to take the time to share your personal story to help others in such a public venue. That takes such courage and I hope you get a personal response.
ReplyDeleteI will tell you that when I wrote my original letter I received the same pat response. It was almost exactly a year after I wrote that I received the call. So they DO read them, and they DO hold on to the ones that touch them. Maybe it will be your letter next, of maybe posting this on your blog will inspire others to take the same step. Either way, you've already made a difference!
Jenna
http://epilogue.inconceivablejourney.com
Nice! I hope you hear back! (But, prepare yourself for the preaching if they take you up on the offer! I don't think O can help herself...) :-)
ReplyDeleteAwesome letter! I hope you'll hear something back, or at least make someone there do some thinking!
ReplyDeleteI think a whole panel of IF'ers with different issues and outcomes would be so enlightenting to the general public. I had an experience today that reminds me that most people seem to think of IVF as the magic solution and they need to understand what it's really all about.
You go!
"Have an issue that needs a tissue?" lol I love it :)
ReplyDeleteI hope you hear back from them.
Go Gettum Gerl!!
ReplyDeleteWay to be proactive on this issue so dear to all of our hearts!
ReplyDeleteWow, that is so cool that you did that! Woohoo! I'd love to see you on O, and many of us, all lined up to not be psychos, to just tell the truth and maybe get one more person to "get it".
ReplyDeleteReally? They can't hire a few more people to take care of the emails? It just feels like it would be money well-spent considering how emotional the topics are that go through the show... But that's just me doing silly thinking :-)
ReplyDeleteAWESOME! I'm so proud of you! I live in Chicago, and you can stay with me if you want when you come to defend our cause! We can have an infertility rally to get you prepared!
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed. You letter is very well written. They should take notice!
ReplyDeleteLove the letter to Oprah!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea JJ. In fact only yesterday I was talking to an infertility charity in England and I am thinking of doing some voluntary work. Lets spread the word around the world!!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you wrote a letter. I wrote one after the initial airing of the show and got that automated response. Yours seems better phrased than I recall mine being, and I hope, hope, hope they contact you.
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful and brave of us to offer to share your story and educate. I really hope they'll contact you.
ReplyDeleteGreat letter! Maybe they'll listen this time. Back in January (when I did my letter to my local paper) a group of about 25 from the message board I frequent did a letter writing campaign to tons of talk shows and magazines (including O). Most of us wrote about our personal stories with info on IF statistics. It was sort of discouraging because in all of that the only one that ever picked it up was my little local paper. I guess it just showes that if you aren't popping out 5 or 6 at a time the national media just isn't listening. Maybe your letter will do the trick!
ReplyDeleteThat letter is very admiralbe of you. We need someone to speak for all of us regardless of our journey in the IF world. Props to you, I really hope that you get picked!
ReplyDeleteI'll be very curious to see how the "O" team responds. The more people know, the better.
ReplyDeleteGreat letter! I think we should bombard their email with IF-related letters!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the awesome work!
Thanks so much for representing all of us and doing it so well!
ReplyDeleteThank you also for all of the support you have been sending my way. :)
JJ - that was a really good letter. Thanks, on behalf of all of us, for writing and sending it. I hope you hear back from them. I have no doubt that you can give O a smackdown if the preaching begins.
ReplyDeleteI applaud your courage and willingness to take on the O machine. Each one of us has the capacity to educate one off, but offering to go on national TV is a whole other level of commitment. Both you and Jenna have my respect and admiration. You go girl.
ReplyDeleteThat's fantasic.
ReplyDeleteI actually just happened to turn on the TV and that 30 something episode was on. The segment on Jenna was just about over so I wasn't sure what the topic of the show was and I thought maybe, just maybe it was about infertility and I was so excited.
After watching the program a little longer I caught on that Jenna was just a small portion of O's 30 something show. I was dissapointed. I would love to see the great goddess of talk television do a show on this topic.
The only show I've ever seen do a show on infertilty was 100 Huntley Street. And that was enough to make my blood absolutely boil!!!
Here's to you for writing your letter and I truly hope you get a personal response.
ewww, exciting. what will you wear?
ReplyDeleteIt is SO great to see someone willing to talk about MALE infertility. I saw that episode and was aghast at how terrible Oprah was to them.
ReplyDeleteI'll be crossing my fingers too - this is a very worthwhile cause, and one that needs to be listened to. Way to go! Keep us up to date, but I know you will :)
ReplyDelete