The difficulties of being an older woman who can't get pregnant are hard for others to imagine.

Zheng Xueling, an older mother who gave birth to a daughter three years ago when she was 42, had been greatly bothered by not being able to get pregnant. She married at 33, and she and her husband Cai Chuanming continually hoped that they would quickly be able to give birth to a child. But they worked hard at getting pregnant for six months with no luck. Anxious, Zheng went to a specialist for help, and that kicked off 10 years of infertility treatments.

From artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization to various kinds of Chinese herbalist and folk remedies-even praying to the Daoist god Jigong-this couple tried everything. So as to undergo various tests, including a laparoscopy (to check if the fallopian tubes were obstructed) and a hysteroscopy (to see if the uterine cavity had experienced pathological changes), as well as the guided egg retrieval necessary for in-vitro fertilization, Zheng underwent general anesthesia eight times, and she was injected with fertility drugs more than 100 times.

"At first I'd go to the clinic to get nurses to inject me, but it became quite inconvenient, so my husband just went ahead and learned how to do it. These lipid-based preparations must be injected deep into the muscle, and they hurt a lot," she says with a wry smile. "Every time, I'd have a big welt on my butt."

Nevertheless, the psychological toll was greater than the physical hardship. Zheng recalls that every time embryos were implanted in her uterus after in-vitro fertilization, she and her husband would be full of hope. The following two weeks would be hardest to bear. She'd go to the bathroom constantly, fearing that she'd see the red announcing the arrival of her period-meaning that once again they had been unsuccessful in their attempt to get her pregnant!

"I have a type-A personality, so I always think that I can succeed if I just work hard enough," she says. "But when it comes to giving birth, hard work doesn't necessarily equate to success. No matter how disappointed I'd be, I'd just have to accept the merciless results one by one."

After nearly ten tough years of infertility treatments, husband Cai Chuanming and wife Zheng Xueling finally gave birth to a beloved daughter. For them, having fun together as a three-person family is one of life's priceless treasures.

Getting what's yours

At the age of 42, after quitting her job 10 years earlier to focus on getting pregnant, after undergoing six in-vitro fertilization procedures, and spending more than NT$1.5 million, Zheng and her husband had given up hope, and accepted the fate of being childless. Consequently, she returned to the working world and was once again focusing on her career. She never expected that, at a time when she and her husband were busy and tired from work, she would discover that she had become pregnant!

"Perhaps we had been too anxious about it in the past, and then because we stopped worrying about it and became relaxed, the child just came naturally," says a smiling Tsai Chuan-ming. "But whatever the case, at the moment that I knew my wife was pregnant, I was happier than if I had won first prize in a lottery!"

During the course of her pregnancy, Zheng was extremely fortunate and she didn't encounter any problems, and in the 38th week she gave birth to a healthy girl by caesarian section.

Amusingly, after finally realizing their goal of becoming parents, they have new gripes: "Since our daughter was born, the world revolves around her. For three years, we've never been to a movie theater, let alone being able to go on our yearly trip abroad!"

What can't be denied is that after having a daughter, this small world seems more complete. The smiling faces of the three members of this household say it all.