My Epic Journey through Infertility and What You Can Learn From It

For readers of issue-driven, inspirational, bestselling memoirs such as A Good Wife, From the Ashes and The Rules Do Not Apply comes Inconceivable, a heartfelt memoir that compassionately and powerfully addresses the pervasive and growing issue of women's infertility through the very real lens of Alex Johnston's harrowing personal story. Fifteen years ago, when Alex first started trying - and struggling - to get pregnant, she received outdated medical information and erroneous advice. Unfortunately, this incorrect information is still widely offered to women today, and barriers to accessing treatment haven't changed. Alex shares what she learned on her own path to parenthood, including navigating infertility and IVF treatments, surviving the loss of her first child, having two daughters through surrogacy in Canada and the United States, and finally, after many years of trying, giving birth to a baby boy the old-fashioned way. All the while, Alex fought for a government policy change to better support people trying to build their families.

Inconceivable is an emotional roller-coaster ride with a purpose and a goal: to inform women about the realities of their fertility through sharing a painful and private experience with infertility. Through telling her own story and recounting those of other women, Alex explores the complexity of this issue while contextualizing these intimate experiences with rigorous research and investigation. Alex Johnston wants to "pay it forward" for other women and create a platform to drive the conversations around infertility that we need to have as a culture. This aims to arm women with information about their own bodies so that they can make informed choices about family planning, thereby preventing a door from quietly closing before they even have a chance to consider opening it.

Alex Johnston's professional life includes serving as Vice-President of Strategy and Public Affairs at the CBC and as a senior policy advisor for justice, social, and women?s issues to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty from 2003 to 2011. She also ran the Canadian office of Catalyst Inc., a global non-profit advocating for the advancement of women in business, and is the incoming co-chair of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. She grew up in Montreal and now lives in Toronto where she and her husband are raising their three young children.