Every Conceivable Way recounts one couple’s nine-year quest to become parents, while giving an honest and thought provoking account of the IVF and surrogacy industries, the fertility merry-go-round, and what it’s like to live for years with uncertainty. This real-life story is stranger than fiction, and asks how far you would go before you call it quits when it seems like all the odds are stacked against you.

Every Conceivable Way is an illuminating and poignant look at the strength of human endurance and the lengths one woman would go to become a parent. Despina Meris’ debut memoir portrays a fascinating, often heartbreaking, journey through miscarriage, IVF and surrogacy, depicting the ultimate wonder and fulfillment a child brings.

After relocating to Australia from New York, Despina and her husband, Bill, made plans to start a family. What they hadn’t anticipated was a string of unexplained miscarriages, even with IVF. Despite the antagonism and legal issues surrounding surrogacy, they sought this out as the only viable method to have a child. Their search for a surrogate first began in India, then in the Ukraine and finally in Thailand, where their baby was conceived.

But their relief was short lived when, overnight, they were caught up in the Thai government crackdown on commercial surrogacy, leaving them with no way of contacting their pregnant surrogate.

In this real-life story that is stranger than fiction, Despina recounts the couple’s nine-year quest to become parents, while uncovering the stigma around the IVF and surrogacy industries and what it’s like to live for years with uncertainty.

With more than 48 million couples worldwide, and one in six couples in Australia and New Zealand alone, experiencing infertility, Despina’s story is a personally relevant topic for a staggering number of people across the globe and one that will stay with you long after the final page.

Despina Meris is a Melbourne-based writer and editor. Her work has been published in International Traveller, Luxury Travel and Holidays for Couples, as well as Neos Kosmos, where she was also Lifestyle Editor. Her extensive infertility research has led her to engage with online forums about domestic and international surrogacy, adoption, miscarriage support and egg donor selection. She has 15 years’ marketing experience—including at the Age—and is a graduate of New York University and the London School of Economics.

My mother taught me that in life you must be strong and resilient. You will face challenges, but don’t ever let them stop you from achieving your dream. You have the power to write your own story.

For nine years, my husband and I chased the dream of having a child. It wasn’t just a dream, it was a need, a longing, an inextinguishable drive.

Every time we got knocked down, we dusted ourselves off and found the courage to go on. I searched high and low for an answer—new fertility techniques, cutting-edge technologies, pioneering doctors, leading me to surrogacy, adoption, egg donors. Australia had its limitations, so I had to find answers internationally.

We were faced with unimaginable roadblocks including a military coup, a revolution and government crackdowns. This nearly broke us, but we were fuelled by a strong relationship, a joint outlook and a fighting attitude. 

People ask me how I had the strength to keep fighting, but I truly believe that when we face challenges that jeopardise our inherent strongest desires, we all find a resilience within us that we never knew we had.

And it was worth the struggle.

This is a very personal story, where I tell about our path, the good and the bad. This book is far more than a story on infertility. Readers will find inspiration in this book, no matter what challenges they are facing in their lives. It’s a reminder that against all odds, you can still triumph. Find that strength, harness that drive and write your own story.

I feel honoured to be able to share my story with the world, a story I hope will give courage to those that may be struggling through their own battle in life.

Despina

Despina will be available for in-store appearances and events from publication in April 2020. For expressions of interest, please contact publicist hannahludbrook@hardiegrant.com.

For a preview of Every Conceivable Way, download the first few pages here.

If you’d like to receive an advance reading copy of Every Conceivable Way, send an email with the subject line ‘Every Conceivable Way’ and your postal address in the body of the email to hannahludbrook@hardiegrant.com.