Next at the Kansas City Infertility Awareness Conference: Kerry Christifano, LPC regarding stress and infertility.

• Stress is the result of anything we find threatening or harmful, and infertility certainly fits that description.
• The media implies that infertility is your fault, and well-meaning but uneducated family and friends don't help.
• Lots of bad information out there with people making many assumptions about stress and infertility. When you want to hear from family and friends, "How can I help you?" you instead too often hear, "You're too fat/too thin/too obsessed!" etc.
• The worst thing if you're trying to conceive is to hear someone say, "You should just adopt." (Unfortunately, most people at the conference report having heard at least one of these insensitive comments.)
• But, instead of just saying, "Don't say that to me!" tell your family and friends what they can say and/or do to help. Don't be afraid to be specific.
• Although there are no good studies out there about stress and infertility, it's highly unlikely stress alone causes infertility. But, it's well-know how stressful receiving a diagnosis of infertility can be.
• High stress levels are associated with decreased IVF success rates, so if you are going through infertiilty treatments, practice whatever stress reduction techniques work for you that help reduce that stress level.
• Women and men react very differently to stress, especially stress around infertility. The most important thing you can do is talk to each other, and look for help from a counselor to help you talk if you need it.
• Remember two things: - first, you are not alone. Literally millions of people in the U.S. alone are experiencing infertility right now. Also, remember that infertility is a temporary crisis. No matter how your infertility is resolved, you will make it through. Build and hang onto support systems to help get you through.

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Dr. Ryan Riggs with the Reproductive Resource Center is going through his basics of infertility - an "Infertility 101" class. Key points:

• If you're over 35 (Dr. Simckes actually lowers that to 30) and haven't conceived in six months of trying, go see a doctor.
• Many people have multiple problems - everything from tubal issues to endometriosis to male infertility.
• 1 in 6 couples have trouble conceiving.
• Even if everything is perfect, 25-year-old women and men will only have about a 20 percent chance of getting pregnant in any given month.
• There's a range of treatment options you can consider - everything from 9-12 percent for oral medications to up to 60 percent success rates for IVF.
• In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is Dr. Riggs' first-line treatment for long-standing infertility or severe male factor infertility.
• Fun fact of the day - five percent of babies born in Europe are the result of IVF.
• He recommends only doing three to four cycles of oral medications, injectibles or IUI before moving to IVF.
• The best treatment for you is the most conservative treatment likely to result in birth.

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Good morning! We're in Kansas City today at the Kansas City Infertility Awareness Conference, where there's a full morning of speakers and activities on the agenda. We'll be live-blogging all the presentations, so keep checking back here and on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

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