For most New Zealanders, having a family is a fact they take for granted. For many others it’s an elusive dream.

In a book released today as part of the New Zealand Infertility Society Infertility Awareness Week, June 8-15, 2002, 14 New Zealand couples tell their stories of their quest to have children.

Co-authored by NZIS executive officer Robyn Scott, Annette Dixon and Jenny Blagdon, the book, The Elusive Dream, gives an insight into the despair felt by people shut out of a world focused on children and family because the choice to have a child is outside of their control.

“The development of assisted reproductive technologies has given many people more hope and opportunity, but it can also mean long years of painful and expensive treatments,” says Robyn Scott.

“No technology can reduce the painful cycles of hope and disappointment that many people experience with their infertility. Even those who are able to go on to have children still consider themselves to be infertile because having children has proved to be outside of their immediate control.”

While there is much sadness in these stories, she says, many people have grown stronger through the experience.

“Even those who have remained childless have been able to regroup and find new definitions of family, and their lives have taken on new, positive directions.”