Searching for Fertility

On the internet, there's an abundance of information just a few keystrokes away for people struggling with fertility issues. But how do you know what information you can really trust?

Simply typing in "fertility" in a Google search seems a good place to start for information, but in reality, the first page of results is riddled with potential landmines of [mis?]information, and there's over 10 million more results on the pages that follow.

In this blog I will examine just the top ten results that come up from this search, and help distinguish between the good and the not-so-good.

To understand what's useful and what's not, it's helpful to categorize this information according to the type of site it comes from. For example, FertilityStories.com would also fit into the category of "user-generated support," and sadly, because it relies on individual experiences, is probably the least reliable source of information in the group. Trusting individuals' experiences can be misleading at best and dangerous at worst. While there may not be anything factually wrong with the information provided, it almost certainly isn't applicable to you. At the very least, their anecdotes lack context. For example, a patient writing a fertility story might say that because they tried a common fertility medication like Clomid ten times without success, they recommend that other patients not try Clomid. That's a dangerous tale because it might turn you off to the very product that you need, because your body and your experiences are going to be very different from theirs.

Another category of site would be product-based websites, places of commerce that sell a variety of products or treatments.  FertilityFriend, TheBabyCorner, and FertilityBlend are examples of sites that have various products, from ovulation calendars to elixirs, that may or may not be helpful. The problem with trying to gather helpful information here is that while the sites may provide information that's factual, it may not be pertinent to you, and the focus is naturally going to be on selling a product rather than providing unbiased information that might lead a viewer to a competing product or treatment.

A third category of information would be "compilation sites" like Wikipedia and MedicalNewsToday would fall under. These sites may well have factual information, and very interesting articles, but without context, without an idea of how reputable or thorough the information is, they may confuse a patient more than help them or worse, cause them to fret about something completely unrelated to their particular case.

The best source of information available through this type of search would be actual medical providers, like WebMd and the American Fertility Association (AFA). These sites have much useful information and also allow patients to directly contact a specialist in the treatment of infertility, someone who put the pieces of your particular infertility puzzle together.