[Soki]

Has anyone been to support groups? What was it like?

[TMorris]

Although I'm typically not much of a group joiner, I attended a local RESOLVE meeting or two several years ago. The monthly meetings were informative, featuring docs or other medical experts as speakers, and in our case, was held in a private conference room of a hospital. There were only about 20 people total, sitting comfortably around a large conference table. Later that year, I attended the local RESOLVE's annual symposium, where about 200 people gathered to hear several experts speak in large and small group sessions.

I definitely understand why some people are too uncomfortable to join such groups, because one might feel a tad over-exposed at the meetings (especially the smaller group gatherings). However, I went to these in-real-life meetings after several years of getting my infertility support entirely from the Internet community, and there was definitely a different 'feel' to having IRL interaction. Overall, I could see how IRL support might feel more 'genuine' even if it's not as readily available as the Internet-based support.

My .02...

[Soki]

Yes, face to face interaction can have a whole different impact than the written word.

What were the groups like? Was the ratio of men to women terribly imbalanced?

[Joni2]

Soki-
I went to a community Infertility support group. Maybe because they met during the day, the group was about 90% female. It was great to meet other people who had the same feelings -- they really understood!