It seems like a lot of us are reading books about infertility or adoption.   So I thought I’d start a series of book reviews.  If you’d like to review a book, please let me know!  I’d like to post one every couple of weeks or so.

To start us off, I am reviewing The Conception Chronicles by Patty Doyle Debano.  While I enjoyed reading this book, I can’t say that I found it either informative or useful.  I also did not find it to be as amusing as advertised.

I’d definitely recommend this book to someone just getting started trying to conceive. It’s useful learning about what to expect when you are charting/temping, using OPKs, taking pregnancy tests, taking clomid, injectibles etc. It covers the things your doctor doesn’t tell you and only a girlfriend will. Like the mood swings, hot flashes, and cervical mucous.

But by the time you’ve been trying for a year or more, you’ll probably know enough to write a book like this. There was a small section at the end about donor eggs and sperm, surrogacy, and adoption, but honestly, I think they just should have left that out. It was the only serious part of the book, so it didn’t seem to fit. Most likely none of the women experienced those things, so they had no personal stories to share. Also, if you want information about those topics, you won’t be looking for a one page synopsis without any depth.

In summary, this is a light read, moderately funny, but not a place to find any detailed information. Recommend it to someone starting out, but not to someone who is already well into treatment with an RE.

3 out of 5 stars