By Katrina RoeThursday 17 Oct 2013Hope MorningsParentingReading Time: 2 minutes
Infertility is a common problem. One in six couples will experience infertility and around 1% of all babies born today will result from assisted reproduction such as IVF.
When a woman goes through infertility, she often confides in a family member or close girlfriend, but many men will never admit to going through infertility.
Former Open House presenter Sheridan Voysey has written about he and his wife’s ten year struggle with infertility in his book, Resurrection Year. He talks openly about what it meant to him as a man. “It didn’t actually affect my sense of masculinity, because I don’t think I’ve ever felt a strong sense of masculinity anyway,” Sheridan says. However, he did struggle with feelings of guilt, particularly when he saw his wife suffering. “There was a sense in which I was the cause of the problem and I thought, ‘What did I do to cause this? Was there something I did that made this happen?’”
Eventually Sheridan and his wife, Merryn had to bring about an end to their dream of having a baby. “For us, it was a practical decision: we just couldn’t keep going any more. We’d tried everything.” That was when they stumbled upon the idea of a Resurrection Year, a term coined by British writer, Adrian Plass. Sheridan defines a Resurrection Year as a year of new life after the death of something. For Sheridan and Merryn, the moment their dream died was when they gave away all the baby things they had accumulated: a pram, portacot and playmat.
Sheridan says that as he looks back he can see four key elements to a Resurrection Year:
1. A period of rest
2. More recreation
3. A period of spiritual renewal
4. A sense of reinvention
While Sheridan now resides in the UK, he was recently back in Australia, and talked to Hope Mornings about his ten year journey through infertility.
Audio: Hear Sheridan explain the concept of a Resurrection Year
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