1000women.com

My name is Keiko Zoll and I'd like to tell you a story about two kids in love.

We met in high school, fell in love and dated through college. We moved in together, making ends meet as I worked full time while he went to grad school. Finally, after 9 years together, I married my high school sweetheart and soulmate. Of course we’d have children together, we told ourselves. Just months after our first wedding anniversary, I received news that would change my life – our lives – from that moment on.

I was diagnosed in March 2009 with premature ovarian failure (now referred to as primary ovarian insufficiency). At only age 26, I learned that I would never be able to conceive my own genetic children. With FSH levels through the roof (63), my doctors informed me that the only way my husband and I could build our family was through the use of donor eggs with IVF or through adoption. It was a crushing diagnosis at a time when we weren’t even actively trying to conceive. We felt robbed.

In the months following, I channeled my emotions: the anger, the grief, the sorrow – into blogging about my experience with infertility at http://www.hannahweptsarahlaughed.com. I learned that I was not alone, that infertility affects as many as 7.3 million people in the United States, about 1 out of every 8 couples. I found a deeply engaged and supportive community of infertility bloggers and became a stronger woman through writing and sharing my infertility story with others.

In 2010, I created this short film, “What IF: A Portrait of Infertility” as a way to raise awareness for what is truly a growing global public health crisis. The film became a viral sensation and went on to garner the Hope Award for Best Viral Video from RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association, and the Grand Prize from Wellsphere.com’s This Is Me video contest. It was through this film and its widespread enthusiastic reception from the infertility community that inspired me to become an infertility advocate.

In April, I went head-to-head with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals when they sought to exploit the infertility community for their own publicity stunt. They created a campaign to give away a free vasectomy “in honor of” National Infertility Awareness Week. Through a vigorous open letter campaign on my blog and Change.org petition that gathered over 2,000 signatures in just 3 days, the animal-rights organization finally removed the link between their campaign and NIAW. It was a tremendous victory for the infertility community, of one that I am proud to have been a catalyst.

Whether it’s taking on a private organization’s publicity stunt or meeting with my Senators on Capitol Hill to advocate for the Family Act, a recently introduced bill that would provide a tax credit for out-of-pocket costs associated with infertility, health advocacy for infertility awareness has become my passion and focus. I give myself completely to this community as infertility is so often laden with shame and silence.

I’ve become a health advocate for infertility because advocacy has given me a sense of control over what I felt was lost the day I was diagnosed. The cultural silencing of the infertility community must end. The time for equal access to care is long overdue. The time has come for infertility to be recognized as disease and for our patient experience to be validated by the media, our legislators, and in the cultural dialogue surrounding parenthood and families.

I ask you to join me in my fight to advocate for infertility awareness, to be one of a million voices calling for change.