Why is Everyone Infertile?

I know the title to my post might irritate some of my loyal infertile readers (although I can count on my fingers the number of readers that I have at all, but that's a different matter altogether).  After all, there are pregnant women EVERYWHERE.  But I've been astonished lately to find out just how much infertility touches people's lives.

There is a woman that I work with occasionally at work.  I saw her 2 weeks ago and realized that she was pregnant.  Of course, I was immediately jealous.  You would think those negative feelings would go away after having baby #1, but NOPE.  Once an infertile, always an infertile.  So we started working closely on a project and I told her congratulations and asked her when she was due.  She said that she was due in December but that she would probably deliver earlier because she was having twins.  Twins!  So immediately my infertile radar starts humming because the vast majority of multiple pregnancies these days are due to infertility treatments.  But I don't want to be rude and ask outright if she had assistance.  Although I'm very open about my struggles and my sister's struggles with infertility, I know that many people want to keep it a very private matter.  So we chatted a little bit more and I eventually asked if there were other twins in her family.  She answered without hesitation that twins do not run in her family and that she had assistance in getting pregnant.  Ahhhh...so immediately my feelings of jealousy flew out the door because I was talking to a fellow infertile!  It turns out that she has a 4 year old daughter and it took them 6 IUIs to get pregnant with her.  And it took her 3 IUIs to get pregnant with her twin boys.  So good for her (although she's still working through her feelings about having twins).

I also work closely with the contracts manager at my company.  I know that he and his wife have been trying to start a family, but that's all I knew.  And a couple of months ago, he had to leave suddenly due to a family emergency and my boss let it slip that his wife had had a miscarriage.  Total suck.  But the other day, I was talking to my boss about the woman who was having twins and my boss let me know that the contracts manager and his wife are also going through infertility treatments.  Wow.  So at that point, I just blurted out that my son was an IVF baby and that we were in the process of trying for #2.  It just seemed like the right time.  She was very cool about the whole thing.  So now I know that the contracts manager is going through a very hard time and I would love to chat with him about it because we share that experience, but I don't know if he knows that I know.  Or whether he wants me to know.  So until the subject comes up between the two of us (if it ever does), I won't bring it up.

But this brings me back to the title of my post.  It seems like everyone I know is having trouble getting pregnant.  The only two people at work that I know about have struggled in the past or are currently struggling.  Then there are 2 women from my mommy group that seem to be struggling with secondary infertility.  After having baby #1 naturally, they cannot conceive baby #2.  So what the hell is up with this world?  What have we done to ourselves?  Why did the average female hit puberty at the age of 17 two hundred years ago, when girls these days are getting their periods at 13 or younger?  What is the deal??!?  It bothers me.  It shouldn't be this hard.