Love Bytes: Five must-click sex, love and relationship links.

Divorce and dating playbook [First Wives World]

So, what am I doing here? This is what went through my mind on my first post-divorce date. And as I went on a few more, I began to wonder how many times I would have to answer the question "So, what's your story?" Story? What story? There was no one to consult…my friends did not have to date, they had husbands.  I would have to come up with a playbook of my own. A dating playbook…with rules and plays and strategies. 

Sex poll: What … Read More

So you've always wanted to have a baby with Brad Pitt, but didn't know how to ask Angelina Jolie to release his scrotum from her bony fist for half an hour.

Rest assured, you're not alone.

A lot of people want Brad Pitt's sperm. And Robert Pattinson's. And Johnny Depp's. And now, thanks to Cryobank sperm bank, they can — sort of.

Merging the science of assisted reproduction with the art of pop culture whoredom, Cryobank allows clients to select sperm from donors who supposedly look like celebrities. I Knocked Myself Up: Pregnancy On My Own

At last, … Read More

Part four of a four-part series on male infertility. Click here to read parts one, two and three.

For me and Amy, however, there was always more hope, always another chance to get pregnant. The next peak in the Fertility Himalayas, ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), was a technique developed in 1992 for severe cases of male infertility in which healthy looking single sperms are literally inserted into healthy seeming eggs. The goal is multiple fertilizations. The fertilized eggs can then be frozen and preserved, or returned to the womb to (hopefully) develop.

ICSI took place in a private hospital. … Read More

Part three of a four-part series on male infertility. Click here to read parts one, two and four. 

Amy had been referred to a Beverly Hills fertility doctor, who was so reassuring that I took him to calling him Dr. Mellow. His office had a wall of photos of smiling babies, as if to say, "This will be you."  

We sat in his waiting room holding hands. We believed. We didn't know we had just taken our seats inside the Hope Factory.

Once inside, the possibility of getting pregnant never ended. If one technique failed, you tried another, and … Read More

Part two of a four-part series on male infertility. Click here to read parts one, three and four.   

Right around this time, my Amy and I decided to move to California. Perhaps a fresh start, a fresh perspective would help. 

My wife's doctor in NY sent her to a doctor in Beverly Hills, who sent her to a fertility specialist, who sent me a doctor whose first name sounded a lot like "Pappy." He was the doctor to see for guys whose guys need to get going. 

Pappy had a slightly goofy personality. … Read More

Part one of a four-part series on male infertility. Click here to read parts two, three and four.   

When I look back on the courtship that led to my marriage, I fast forward through a carousel of emotionally charged moments: the night we met, the night we first slept together (not the same), a postcard she sent me, our first weekend away together, a Ray Charles concert, a birthday party (mine), a birthday party (hers), a Hamptons summer rental, a Sam Cooke album, an Al Green concert, a vacation in Europe where I almost proposed but didn't, … Read More

I was ready for kids at age 28—and well aware that women's fertility starts to plummet at 35. When I saw my doctor that fateful year, she asked me if I wanted children. "Yes," I replied. "Definitely." With a stern look, she snapped, "Well, you're not getting any younger!"

Thanks for the news flash, I thought. What kind of idiot does she think I am?

I was a romantic, procrastinating idiot, to be exact. Despite my clear intellectual understanding of the issues involved, it took me until age 38 before I seriously started thinking about single motherhood, and even … Read More