Amy Klein's The Trying Game
Ravishly is thrilled to present the cover reveal for Amy Klein's The Trying Game: Get Through Fertility Treatment and Get Pregnant Without Losing Your Mind!
When we found out that Ravishly contributor Amy Klein was writing a fertility book, we were ecstatic! Fertility is something our staff and readers have wanted and needed to read and write about, and there is no one better equipped to write the essential book on the topic than Amy. We asked Amy to share a little bit about the book and why she wrote it.
Book Synopsis
Imagine if you had a best friend you could call for advice on trying to get pregnant, finding a fertility doctor, whether or not you should freeze your eggs, dealing with nosy nellies asking When Are You Going to Have a BABY already?, and getting through life/work/relationships while hopped up on crazy-making hormones trying to get AND stay pregnant. Well, now, you do.
In her upcoming book The Trying Game: Get Through Fertility Treatment and Get Pregnant Without Losing Your Mind
(Penguin/Random House, April 2020), former New York Times "Fertility Diary" columnist Amy Klein takes you through the emotional and practical journey of trying to have a baby, from the Oh Shoot! Am I Infertile question to the How The Hell Am I Going to Afford This conundrum. All the way through the I Hate All My Pregnant Friends stage to Is it Time to Move On? or the Motherhood After IVF ending.
In this comprehensive road map to navigating the confusing world of infertility, she includes advice from medical experts as well as their patients in a compassionate and down-to-earth way. The Trying Game will show you, with heart and humanity, what to expect when you’re not expecting.
Why I Wrote This Book
As a health and science writer and essayist, I started writing about my journey because I couldn't find any information out there except for these fertility boards where women would discuss "magic baby dust" and use acronyms I did not understand (like BD for baby dance for sex). The NYTimes asked if I wanted to do a weekly column, and then transition it over to a pregnancy column in a few months when I got pregnant. HA!
That didn't happen, and I wrote more than 30 columns for them over the next three years.
I always imagined that when I finally had a baby, I would write a memoir about the whole journey. But with people contacting me for advice nearly every day, I realized that this was bigger than my story. People wanted help.
And although it seems like the fertility advice market has exploded—now there is almost too much information available—people still had the same questions and complaints, from the emotional ones like Do I have to attend my best friend's shower? (no) to the practical ones like How many embryos should I transfer? (Usually one). So I used my own experiences and interviewed the very best doctors and other patients to give them the advice I wish I had during my journey.
After four miscarriages, ten doctors, nine rounds of IVF, two donors, and one rabbi, I finally had a baby. I made many, many mistakes along the way, and I wanted to help other people avoid the same mistakes I made.
Bio: Amy Klein is a journalist and essayist. Her work has appeared in The New York Times (Modern Love: "What the Rabbi Said," "My Very Own Cyberstalker," Draft: "The Writer's Workshop Glossary") The Washington Post, Slate, Salon, Aeon, NPR, and other publications. She is a Moth storyteller. She lives with her husband and daughter in New York City.
