Six TTC (ish) books to read this year
As we all know, there are many brilliant books about infertility, IVF and baby loss already out there – here are some new ones coming soon to add to your shelves
Good Tuesday, brilliant subscribers! I hope you are very well. Today’s newsletter is inspired by World Book Day, which was last Thursday. I’ll be taking a look at some of the recent releases which might be of interest to this community. I will try not to mention our book at all, because I don’t think we can call 2022 “recent”. However, obviously, if you’re looking for a great book to be your companion through TTC and IVF, ours is a comprehensive guide. And it’s quite funny. There, that’s it, I won’t mention us again.
Emma will be back on Friday when she’ll be looking into every single CCG , ahem!, ICB (integrated care board), in the country to tell you what they offer. In other words – what you are entitled to in terms of funded fertility support in every part of the UK. Go Emma, go! You’ll need a paid subscription to read - upgrade here if you need to:
For the infertility crewdem, World Book Day can be a difficult one. Entirely because social media is awash with children dressed as book characters, not because people who are struggling to conceive don’t love books. They do. Books can be an escape from the real world, a place to find comfort in shared experience and a huge source of knowledge – all things people need when TTC.
Thankfully, there are actually quite a few books out there tackling the “taboo” subjects of infertility, miscarriage and loss. And women’s health. Is that also a taboo? It sometimes feels like it!
Here are just a few of the books to hit our shelves this year that I believe are worth a look at.
Released April 2025
You may know Jessica Zucker from Insta as @ihadamiscarriage, and her first book tackled just that, the stigma around miscarriage. Her next book is looking at the whole female experience to “normalise the difficult things.”
Released 4 March 2025
I confess, I have this book in front of me now. It’s beautiful. Isabel’s exploration of TTC through the ages has been illustrated by Anna Burel in quite a surreal way, it’s very cool. If you fancy an arty, yet slightly academic look at fertility/infertility, this is for you.
Released October 2025
This is a memoir from a former Condé Nast magazine editor who suffered from unexplained infertility. Here’s a bit of the blurb: “From Hope to Shame, Courage to Grief, Disappointment to Dread to Uncertainty, this book, with unflinching honesty, explores the many painful, palpable human truths at the heart of a most common experience we've only scratched the surface of understanding.”
Released May 2025
Naga was the keynote speaker at an event I hosted a couple of years ago, where she talked about her experience of having crippling adenomyosis. I can’t wait to read this. As well as talking about her own experience, Naga has interviewed dozens of other women whose pain has not been listened to.
Released February 2025
This looks to be one of those real rollercoaster stories, where an infertility journey turns into a health complication journey (hubby had to have a liver transplant). Will undoubtedly be a tearjerker.
Released January 2025
This book is sort of pitching itself as the antidote to tracking apps – which I quite like – it’s basically a chart for you to fill out throughout the year but packed with prompts to help you learn more about your own body. It’s written by a midwife and a clinical sex therapist.
And another thing
If you’re sick to the back teeth of listening to people who desperately want to have babies (if so, sorry for this Substack), Bella Mackie has written a very funny list of the reasons why she and husband Greg James don’t want to have any. AKA none of your business. I giggled.
I think you would appreciate the work of Dr Wendy @Dr. Wendy, her research on Phytoestrogens and estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. She also believes that this bioidentical estrogen is causing overexposure equivalent to consuming multiple birth control pills in many cases, and also due to compounding several Phytoestrogenic plants and herbs. 🙏🏼