绝大多数人对未来的生活有着特定的期待，对某些人来说，结婚、建立家庭可谓计划的一部分。

　　But imagine being told that you're infertile. For people who planned their life around the idea of parenthood, the news can be devastating. Several studies have actually found that the psychological impact of a diagnosis of infertility is comparable to a diagnosis of cancer.

　　但是设想一下你被告知患了不孕不育症的情形——对于那些生活计划围绕着养育子女展开的人来说，这样的消息称得上是毁灭性的。事实上，有几个研究发现：确诊为不孕不育对当事人精神上的打击可以与确诊为癌症相提并论。

　　This week, we learned more about the women who'll be sharing their lives with us over the next couple of months. In some of their stories, miscarriages and conception problems have been common themes.

　　下面一些当事人的亲身经历中，共有的主题是流产和观念问题。

　　Ashley was diagnosed with unexplained infertility after suffering several miscarriages: "By the third miscarriage, I had become numb to the whole thing," she says.

 

　　几次流产之后，Ashley被诊断为原因不明性流产。她说：“第三次流产之后，我对整个事情都麻木了。”

　　Lateefah waited until she was in her 30s to have a baby, and says that when she finally tried to get pregnant, she felt "swindled." While mourning a miscarriage, she says, she became bitter: "I had been lied to for decades. Not only was getting pregnant arduous, keeping a pregnancy was completely out of my control. Why hadn't anyone told me?"

　　Lateefah直到30岁才打算要孩子，当她最终想要怀孕的时候，才感到“上当了”。在为流产而伤心的同时，她更悲观了：“十多年来我听到的都是谎言。不仅怀孕很难，而且维持妊娠全部超出了我的控制。为什么从没有人告诉过我？”

　　Andrea went through 10 years of fertility drugs, miscarriages and diagnostic procedures before she became pregnant with twins. Now the mother of two young boys who were adopted, she looks back on her first infertility treatment: "It shattered my heart and annihilated my spirit."

　　10年里，Andrea历经了服用生育药物、流产以及确诊怀上双胞胎。现在她是一位母亲，收养了两个男孩。回首排名较好次接受不孕治疗的经历，她说道：“那让我伤心欲绝、精神崩溃。”

　　More than 7 million women in the U.S. have trouble getting or staying pregnant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But once you've been diagnosed, you do have options.

　　根据“疾病控制中心”的统计，美国有超过700万名女性受孕困难或妊娠中出现问题。但是如果你被诊断为不孕，还是有办法的。

　　After you've seen your OB/GYN and exhausted treatment methods there, you may be referred to an infertility specialist, or reproductive endocrinologist.

　　看过了妇产科医生，尝试了熬人的治疗方法之后，你可以试试不孕不育专家，或者说是生殖内分泌学家。

　　But the treatments they offer aren't cheap, and insurance coverage varies widely across the U.S. (A couple of months ago, NPR's Jennifer Ludden reported on groups that offer financial aid for those who need help paying for treatment.)

　　不过他们提供的治疗价格不菲，美国各地的涵盖范围大相径庭。（几个月前，公共电台的Jennifer Ludden 报道了一个为需要这种治疗的人提供经济援助的组织。）

　　Dr. Eric Levens, a reproductive endocrinologist with Shady Grove Fertility in the Washington, D.C., area, says some women who have trouble conceiving might shy away from seeing a specialist, because they think their only option is IVF.

　　华盛顿特区Shady Grove生殖中心的Eric Levens博士说，一些受孕困难的女性可能羞于救助生殖专家，因为她们认为惟一的选择是体外受精。

　　But there are other methods.

　　但是还有其他办法。

　　There's the use of hormone therapy to stimulate ovulation; intrauterine insemination (IUI), which can be done in a doctor's office or clinic, and involves injecting healthy sperm directly into the uterus; and the use of minimally invasive reproductive surgery on women with conditions like endometriosis or scarred fallopian tubes, for example.

　　可以采用激素疗法来促排卵；宫腔内人工受精（IUI)——这种手术是把健康的精子直接植入子宫，能在医生办公室或诊所进行；对于子宫内膜异位或输卵管受损的女性，还可以进行微创生殖手术。

　　Then, of course, there's IVF, the most effective form of assisted reproductive technology. But it's a complex process that involves a series of steps. Before you even begin a cycle, you and your partner will likely need to be screened for the quality of your eggs and sperm, and whether you have any infectious diseases.

　　当然，还有体外受精——最有效的辅助生殖技术。不过它是一个复杂的过程，涉及一系列步骤。甚至在整个程序开始之前，你和你的伴侣就需要检查卵子和精子的质量，以及是否有传染病。

　　I asked Dr. Levens to sketch out the rest of the process for us:

　　下面是Levens博士为我们勾勒出的其余步骤：

　　First, some women may be asked to start taking birth control pills, a step Levens says often seems counterintuitive. But the pills help temporarily shut down, or "quiet," the ovaries to help control your cycle and improve the group of eggs that are being developed.

　　首先，某些女性可能会被要求服用避孕药，这通常被认为违反直觉。但是这些药物会暂时停止排卵，或让子宫”静一静”，以帮助控制你的排卵周期并改善正在发育的卵子。

　　Next, you'll start using injection medications, called gonadotropins. According to Levens, these induce development of the ovarian follicles containing the eggs. In a natural menstrual cycle, he says, there's usually only enough gonadotropin to support the development of a single follicle.

　　然后，你要开始使用名为“促性腺激素”的注射药物。Levens说，这样能促使含有卵子的卵泡发育，通常在自然的月经周期里，只有足够供一个卵泡发育的促性腺激素。

　　In IVF, he says, the goal is to produce multiple follicles to allow for the selection of higher quality embryos.

　　他说，进行人工受精时，目的是产生多个卵泡以便选择更优质的胚胎。

　　Women will usually need to be on these medications for nine to 11 days during each stimulation cycle. You'll also need to take medication to prevent the premature release of the egg.

　　通常在每个刺激周期，女性需要接受9到11天这样的药物治疗，还要服药，防止过早排卵。

　　Once the follicles reach a certain size, you're given yet another medication to encourage the eggs to mature. About 36 hours later, doctors use a needle to retrieve the eggs. The patient is also typically under some type of sedation.

　　当卵泡达到一定大小，就要服药另一种药物来促使卵子成熟。大约36小时后，医生就会用针取出卵子，当然患者通常处于镇静剂的作用之下。

　　Then, the eggs are counted and inseminated in a laboratory.

　　接下来，实验室会数一数有几个卵子，并进行受精。

　　"Over the course of the next three to six days," Levens says, "the resulting embryos are observed, and the timing of the transfer is determined based on a particular patient's history and embryo development. The embryos are then gently placed into the uterine cavity through a procedure called an embryo transfer."

　　“接下来的3到7天，会对得到的胚胎进行观察。然后它们会通过称为胚胎移植的程序被小心地放入子宫腔里，移植的时间取决于每位病人特定的情况和胚胎的发育。”Levens说。

　　Next, you wait — about two weeks — to find out if the cycle was successful. During this period, you'll also need to take another round of medication to support the uterine lining, to make sure that it can support a pregnancy.

　　下一步，你需要等待大约两周，看整个过程是否成功。这期间，你还需要服用另一个疗程的药物来增强子宫内膜，它能支持妊娠。

　　The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology maintains a database of IVF success rates from member clinics across the country. The average national success rate for women under the age of 35 is about 48 percent. That rate declines the older the woman is. The risk of miscarriage also increases the older a woman is, so it may take several IVF cycles to get pregnant.

　　“辅助生殖科技学会”保留着全国会员诊所进行体外受精的成功率数据，年龄在35岁以下的女性全国平均的成功率是48%。随着女性年龄的增加，成功率会下降，而流产的几率会上升，因此，可能会进行数次体外受精才能受孕。

　　But, Levens says, for women younger than 35, "approximately 85 percent will successfully achieve a pregnancy within their first three cycles."

　　但是Levens说，35岁以下的女性“大约85%会在前三次之内成功怀孕”。

　　But some women will never be able to get pregnant or carry a pregnancy to term. And for many of them, it can take years to heal emotionally. Women are already twice as likely as men to suffer from depression, so, experts say, it's important to seek help to cope with the loss of a pregnancy or infertility treatments.

　　但是有些女性将永远无法受孕或妊娠足月，他们中有些人将需要数年才能在情感上康复。女性罹患忧郁症的几率本来就是男性的两倍，因此，专家说，寻求帮助以应对妊娠或不孕不育的失败就很重要了。

　　There are support groups out there. Resolve: the National Infertility Association, has a list of support groups across the country on their website. And the International Council on Infertility Information Dissemination, or INCIID (pronounced "inside"), helps couples explore different options for building families, including adoption.

　　有许多支持团体。解决方法：“全国不孕不育协会”网站上有全国支持团体的名单；“不孕不育信息宣传国际委员会”（INCIID）帮助不孕不育夫妇寻求建立家庭的不同方法，包括收养孩子。