06-26-2010, 10:29 AM
New York women won't let biology stand in their way
Whether it's children via IVF - or a date with Prince Harry - New York women know what they want, writes Melissa Whitworth.
By Melissa Whitworth
Published: 7:49AM BST 25 Jun 2010
I'm not a country club woman but, for the sake of my husband, I'm at his extremely proper club in Westchester, celebrating the start of the summer season. A band is playing and children are frolicking. I've made a valiant effort to fit in. I now know more about the game of golf than is seemly in a British lass, I'm enthusiastic about the functions, and I'm making new friends. I do, however, draw the line at playing the game, or at wearing red, white and blue on July 4.
Mid-conversation, one of these new friends drops quite a clanger. "You know," she says, "If you really want fit in, you've got to have a child." My small talk is brought to a stunned halt by such an old-fashioned attitude; after all, we're only an hour away from the city, where many of my girlfriends earn more than their husbands. Even more surprising was that my childlessness (I am 32 and married) had been observed, noted and judged. I should have seen the signs: last year, at the same club, an acquaintance greeted me with the words: "No children yet, Melissa?" The
American way is a blunt way, to say the least.
The same week, I accompanied a different friend to an Upper East Side fertility clinic. For the past seven months she has been under the care of two doctors and a team of very stern nurses, who have been dosing her up with mood-altering hormones to stimulate her ovaries. Then, painfully, they retrieve the eggs and an embryologist flash-freezes them.
It's an emotionally and physically exhausting process, but at 8am the clinic was busier than the shoe department at Barneys during the sale. That one clinic alone treats over 100 women a day. My friend calls it "the puppy mill". But for her, and the other women that day, it's that one last chance to fit in. New York women are a tenacious, successful bunch and there's no way biology is going to hold them back.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/women_...r-way.html
Whether it's children via IVF - or a date with Prince Harry - New York women know what they want, writes Melissa Whitworth.
By Melissa Whitworth
Published: 7:49AM BST 25 Jun 2010
I'm not a country club woman but, for the sake of my husband, I'm at his extremely proper club in Westchester, celebrating the start of the summer season. A band is playing and children are frolicking. I've made a valiant effort to fit in. I now know more about the game of golf than is seemly in a British lass, I'm enthusiastic about the functions, and I'm making new friends. I do, however, draw the line at playing the game, or at wearing red, white and blue on July 4.
Mid-conversation, one of these new friends drops quite a clanger. "You know," she says, "If you really want fit in, you've got to have a child." My small talk is brought to a stunned halt by such an old-fashioned attitude; after all, we're only an hour away from the city, where many of my girlfriends earn more than their husbands. Even more surprising was that my childlessness (I am 32 and married) had been observed, noted and judged. I should have seen the signs: last year, at the same club, an acquaintance greeted me with the words: "No children yet, Melissa?" The
American way is a blunt way, to say the least.
The same week, I accompanied a different friend to an Upper East Side fertility clinic. For the past seven months she has been under the care of two doctors and a team of very stern nurses, who have been dosing her up with mood-altering hormones to stimulate her ovaries. Then, painfully, they retrieve the eggs and an embryologist flash-freezes them.
It's an emotionally and physically exhausting process, but at 8am the clinic was busier than the shoe department at Barneys during the sale. That one clinic alone treats over 100 women a day. My friend calls it "the puppy mill". But for her, and the other women that day, it's that one last chance to fit in. New York women are a tenacious, successful bunch and there's no way biology is going to hold them back.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/women_...r-way.html