Working while going through IVF: 'I didn't want my employers to know about it because of my career'

Your storiesWomen across France undergoing assisted reproductive treatment told Le Monde the challenges they face in balancing their professional lives with medical appointments. These women shared the 'emotional and physical' exhaustion they have tried to hide and the discrimination they have experienced.

Juggling medical appointments and work demands, making up for absences by working late at night or on weekends, putting on a brave face in front of colleagues after a negative pregnancy test: The phrase "double life" comes up often among women who are employed and undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) in their efforts to have a child.

They often have to free themselves up, sometimes at a moment's notice, for numerous medical appointments, including repeated blood tests and ultrasounds, hormone treatments scheduled at very specific times, daily monitoring of results and procedures for egg retrievals or embryo transfers – sometimes only confirmed a few days beforehand. The high level of flexibility required, as well as the physical and emotional effects, impacts the professional lives of these women. This was all largely invisible until Marine Tondelier, national secretary of France's Green Party, brought the flexibility required for ART into the spotlight by publicly announcing her pregnancy at the end of March, which was partly thanks to a medically assisted reproduction process.

What does it mean to entrust a decision that is usually deeply personal to the world of work? How can the demands of the ART process be balanced with the daily realities of a professional life? What are the consequences? With one in four couples facing infertility, the challenge of reconciling this process with work is significant, as illustrated by the more than 150 responses received after Le Monde asked readers for their personal accounts. The experiences of the women we contacted again varied according to their job role, the length of their medical process, their relationship with their employer and how long they had been with their company.

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