Fertility Matters at Work

What do you see in this 📸? You see pure love. ❤️ We attended the My Surrogacy Journey network session yesterday in London and this months guest speakers were 2 MSJ members and their surrogate and her husband. Listening to their individual stories was hugely emotional and there were plenty of tears all round.( Claire's make up was ruined after the session!) #Surrogacy is still a stigmatized topic. It has so much negativity attached to it and people would rather guess at its nuances than educate themselves on the reality of it. In this session we heard: 👩🍼 How important the relationship between Intended parents and surrogates are and when there is trust and mutual support how well this can work. 👨🍼 How health professionals understanding surrogacy is a vital part of this journey and how easy it is to be inclusive in appointments if surrogacy is understood. 👩🍼 How people usually arrive at surrogacy with a story that is often complex, life changing and often associated with trauma and years of pain through failed fertility attempts or loss. 👨🍼 Language matters. With family and friends, with clinicians, with work, with anyone connected with the journey and subsequent birth. We will leave this post with a quote from James who is Charlotte's (Surrogate husband) who said; 'No amount of money in the world could replace the look on Vicky and Nick's (intended parents)face when their baby was handed to them'.🥺 All the 'feels'.💛 Right there. Pic credit: to team MSJ as Claire's eyes were too wet to take a decent picture 🥺

❤️Lavish.. ❤️Glamorous… ❤️Menopause… Three words you wouldn’t necessarily put together but that’s exactly what Deborah Garlick did in opening speech at last nights Menopause Friendly Awards and it summed up the room perfectly 🥂 Thank you the amazing team Henpicked: Menopause in the Workplace for inviting us to share in the glitz and the glamour at your Menopause Friendly Awards last night. To see the inspirational work of forward thinking organisations who are supporting menopause awareness raising and training in the workplace and the dedication of those involved in driving the change, was something else. We’ve often said we see the fertility conversation following in the footsteps of what has happened with the menopause and being able to witness change like this and see just how many organisations are committed to doing the right thing was just brilliant 🙏

Not long to go before we take to the Educational stage at this year's The Modern Family Show 2024 At Fertility Matters we see the discrimination in family building journeys play out regularly. 📃 From work policies not being inclusive of everyone on every journey. ✒️ From forms being heteronormative and excluding particular journeys. 👤 From HR advice being poor, teams being ill equipped in dealing with queries and not understanding legislation and rights. We're proud to partner this event and hope to see you there. 💛 'Rights are won only by those who make their voices heard'.Harvey Milk

The words, 'you can always have IVF', or 'JUST have IVF' probably ring true to most people who found themselves on the path of medical intervention to have a baby. This is like saying: 🏠 Just buy a bigger house ( if you have no room for all of your things) 🚗 Just drive a better car ( if yours is constantly breaking down) 🏖 Just go on holiday abroad if you hate the weather here. This. Costs. Money. 💰 In the 1980's an average cycle of IVF treatment stood between £1,000 and £2,000 and back then a whopping 90% of cycles did not result in a pregnancy. That is like betting that money on a horse running a hundred times and it only winning 10 out of those 100- would you bet on it? Would you heck as like! In 1980 the average house price was £23k and average earnings were £6,000 so a cycle would be donating a third of your salary to something that was more than likely going to fail; but people did it. Fast forward 5 decades and an average treatment cycle now stands roughly at £7,500, with wages averaging out at £35,880- this still equates to a fifth of a salary alongside the cost of living being the highest it has been in decades. With a huge reduction in funded options via the #NHS and the increase in commercialism of treatment ( the UK clinic market was worth £627.4 MILLION in 2023) we are hurtling towards a cataclysmic gap between those people who can afford it and those who can't. This is simply unfair. Birth rates are declining and more people are accessing treatment and yet with advanced medical technology and improved success rates ( much higher than the 1980's ones) we seem to be heading backwards to pre NHS existing where you paid for all medical treatment and those who couldn't afford it just didn't get the help. This post is not to create drama or to incite anger in anyone but it is simply to highlight yet another nuance of fertility treatment that is often played down or dismissed by wider society. People go into debt to make a baby. They sell their homes. They move their lives to access treatment. They lose their jobs. This is reality for many and we need to simply do better. #FertilityMattersAtWork Fertility Action Network NHS England Kelly-Anne Morris Wes Streeting Angela Rayner MP for Ashton Alexandra Davies-Jones

We’re delighted to have our co-founder and CEO Becky Kearns as part of the panel for this Morgan Hunt webinar, which will be a candid conversation about the challenges of fertility and how to navigate them. Hosted by Clare Keniry, joining Becky on the panel will be Shaun Greenaway and Stefanie Daniels ACC, NT (DipCNM), to share practical advice, coping strategies, and insights into creating a more inclusive work environment. You'll learn about: 🧠The emotional and physical toll of fertility challenges. 📝Tips & advice for those experiencing fertility challenges 🍎Nutritional advice for managing fertility and menstrual conditions, such as Endometriosis/ PCOS and more. 👨💻How to balance work and personal life during fertility treatments. 💛Creating a supportive workplace culture for employees facing fertility issues. ✅️Practical advice for employers on implementing fertility-friendly policies. Whether you're personally affected by fertility, supporting a loved one, or simply want to create a more inclusive workplace, this webinar is a great webinar to start. You can register for free here: Fertility Insights: Balancing Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace | Morgan Hunt

Engagement, attraction, retention...all reasons why it's important for organisations to become Fertility Friendly Employers. An important article we were delighted to contribute to, sharing some of the changes in how workplaces are supporting those needing fertility treatment. At Fertility Matters at Work we're keen for this conversation to be broader than simply offering fertility benefits - these can be hugely helpful, attractive and transformative for employees, yet organisations first need to break the stigma and support available on a cultural level and day-to-day basis, which is what support organisations with and campaign for. This article shares some great reasons why it's important for fertility to be on the agenda, with best practice from our client Cadent Gas Limited as well as Natalie Sutherland. It also shares some of the challenges that cannot be ignored, with some great insights from the wonderful Joeli Brearley of Pregnant Then Screwed, that "Offering the treatment does not directly deal with the intrinsic bias many employers hold towards pregnant women". This extends to those who are trying to get pregnant, who (as a result of this intrinsic bias) are still not feeling comfortable to speak to their employer and, for many who do disclose, being treated unfavourably as a result. We need to do more - thank you to Jane Croft for writing this piece.

It’s back to work for many.. and The F Word at Work is back for Series 4 🎧🎙️🥳 These episodes are for you if you're in HR, you're a manager or you're wanting to be in a better position to support a colleague who is struggling to have a family - and might feel that you’ve just not got the headspace to think about yet another issue. 🙏 Every chat in our 'How to' guide is going to talk about the different routes to parenthood, the many challenges they bring and the hurdles that people going through them have to overcome both at work and at home.😞 Our hope is that listening to them will enable you to support your colleagues, as no two experiences are the same and it's so important you realise that. 🎧 When it comes to IVF there can be so many different experiences and that’s why we're talking about the alternative routes such as surrogacy, solo parenthood along with the impact of loss as we give you practical take aways. Our aim is for you to have a clearer understanding on what someone is going through and ideally be able to know how to help them, with signposting and using the right kind of language. 🗣️ We kick off the series focusing on the IVF treatment in general with Caroline Allen (née Cook) Head of customer experience at Apricity Fertility Caroline is a former midwife and also is going through her own fertility journey. She is so honest and open which we’re always so privileged to be able to share and she also discusses insights from the work Apricty does with its patients along with how her own lived expereince impacted her conversation at work - giving you some excellent words of wisdom to get you started. Please share this episode with your colleagues, we've kept them pretty short and to concise to be even more on point and hopefully each episode will form a useful tool kit for you. 🙏 You can have a listen here 🎧🎙️ https://lnkd.in/ee6xTQsp Huge thanks to our series sponsor Apricity Fertility

August Round up 🫶 💻 Summer GovPD session 👥 Facilitated an impactful launch event with ASOS.com for its Fertility and Baby Loss community 📅 Booked in numerous awareness raising events for members and new clients for Q4 along with planning exciting activity for NFAW 2024 📰National press coverage The Guardian 📞 Exciting business calls with several new clients ✈️ Confirmation of more European travel to continue to spread the word of why Fertility Matters at Work 📌 30,000 views of our posts on LinkedIn across the month 💷 Received confirmation of further grant funding for our social impact activity 👨👨👧👦 Prep for our 3rd year at the The Modern Family Show 2024 🎙️Recording of 'Series 4' of 'The F Word at Work' ⛺️ Camping, a festival, a family wedding and some much needed 🌞 all whilst juggling the summer holiday activities and running the business with a small but mighty team 💪 Let's get into those 'Ber' Months....... Pics of the FMAW crew during their respective 'down time' during August, Becky at a festival, Natalie with her eye on a FMAW branded coloured speedboat and Claire in the sun.

Businesses. 📢 Listen up. If ANY of your employees are👇: ✅️ LGBTQ+ ✅️ Cancer survivors ✅️ Have an underlying health condition such as M.S, Parkinsons or HIV. ✅️ Have gynecological issues such as endometriosis, PCOS, no womb Adenomyosis, Fibroids, PID or genetic/ hormonal challenges. ✅️ Have early onset menopause ( yes this is a 'thing'). AND they want to have a 👶 Then guess what.........? Then they are likely to need fertility treatment to do so! We live in a world where we are now more mindful of hidden disabilities, more aware of mental health and neurodiversity than ever before, yet this issue of having a baby via medical intervention remains hidden in plain sight. We just can't figure out why..... If you are a business and you reference ANY of this stuff below on your website/ in your mission statement/ in ANY of your PR to attract and retain talent, ask yourselves if you have proactively done anything to accelerate THIS conversation in YOUR organisation. If you have used any of these words and you're not aligning them to any action, then these are just that. They are just words. ✅️ Inclusive Employer ✅️ Progressive ✅️ Great culture ✅️ Superb benefits ✅️ Integrity ✅️ Recognition Don't be THAT employer. #FertilityMattersAtWork

Just 5 years ago when you Googled 'Support for Fertility in the workplace', nothing appeared. Just vague bits of information that talked about treatment itself and then workplaces. As separate and unconnected entities. Fertility treatment has been around since the 1970's, so goodness knows how many people have 'winged it' since then. We want no more 'winging it'. We want no more 'hiding it' We want no more dependence on 'luck' to shape work experiences. We want ( and we shall get!) 📝 Proper workplace guidance and policy that is inclusive, supportive and practical. 💛 Properly trained and educated managers to be able to deal with this sensitively and with compassion. ⚖️ Legislation that removes the uncertainty of 'am I allowed to...' because current laws ( in the absence of any around fertility treatment) make it easy for employers to dismiss because of this reason. And yes, it happens! 👩👧👧👨👩👧👦👨👧👧 A community that stands up and advocates for change in this space. 🌈 Equality and inclusion around this conversation. ALL people regardless of sexual orientation and gender are affected by this. #FertilityMattersAtWork