Dear Mary: I never thought my new husband and I would have fertility issues — how can we ever accept a childless future?

'We lost the child(ren) we had hoped to have within the first seven weeks and were, and are, devastated'. Illustration: Getty Images

Mary O'Conor

Question: I got married last year to the most wonderful man, and I love him dearly. We were in our late 30s and early 40s when we met. We have been trying to have a family for nearly four years, and underwent IVF. We lost the child(ren) we had hoped to have within the first seven weeks and were, and are, devastated.

I had previously been in a very long relationship, with someone I met when I was much younger, and it didn’t even enter my head that I’d have fertility issues. The other person never favoured having a family, and eventually it was the reason we split up.