Richie Sadlier believes that fear of being judged is one of the biggest reasons why men don't talk about fertility issues with their friends and families.
Sadlier and his wife Fiona were first told in 2018 that they would be unable to conceive naturally. Four rounds of IVF treatment failed before Fiona became pregnant by natural means
Earlier this year, Sadlier and his partner announced the wonderful news on social media.
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Studies suggest that almost half of people are wary of even attending fertility clinics for fear of being slagged by their friends. As someone who has been on this road, Sadlier knows better than most about the fears and stigma associated with fertility issues.
"Loads of people don't know how common it is among heterosexual couples to struggle to conceive naturally, it's something like 20-25%" said Sadlier on Ireland AM earlier today.
"But the stat that really jumped out at me was that almost half of people would see fear of judgement or embarrassment as an obstacle to even going into a fertility clinic and even looking for treatment.
"Now I can understand that. Countless people have contacted me in the last few months since I said that we'd been on this road, Who are on this road or just gotten off it or are about to start it, and loads of them say we don't tell our friends or we can't tell all our family.
"It's fear of being slagged by their mates. Or maybe their partner doesn't want people to know because it's a private thing, which is really understandable.
"And you don't get to decide which days it gets talked about because at any given moment someone can come up to you and go 'How are you getting on?"
"Which mightn't be the question you want on particular days.
From Sadlier's own personal experience, he reckons the best thing that couples can do is be open and honest with friends and family. That way, the burden is shared as opposed to being solely carried by a couple.
"I think the best thing we did, from the start we talked to friends and family, so that in the really difficult days - and there were loads - I didn't only have Fiona to talk to about it and I wasn't her only source of support or whatever.
"If you're a couple going through this and no-one else knows, you've only one other person to talk to and it's your partner and they're going through an unbelievable amount of stuff too.
"So we had loads of options of who to talk to on days were you just want to offload, cry, rant or whatever."
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