“You’ll never be able to have children.” I was 19, a student at Ohio State University, sitting at the Medical Center listening to a ‘doctor’ talk about my irregular periods. Was he even out of med school? I don’t know how he got such authority. He was a kid by my standards today, who didn’t know what he was talking about, but I believed him.

I smoked my way through my 20s and 30s and then at age 37 finally decided to give up my Marlboros. During those years I experienced two miscarriages. But six months after quitting smoking for good, I got pregnant and knew this time it would stick.