I need to explain something to all of you. It’s something I feel goes unnoticed on a daily basis by the majority of people, but it’s plaguing more than most people realize. I’ve only just come to terms with the fact that I myself am struggling with it on a daily basis. Because it is my struggle, it is also my family’s struggle because they have to live with me. This struggle is called “Old Eggs Syndrome.” I am now in my 6th month of being 37 and Old Egg Syndrome has taken hold of me and my life. It makes me confused, anxious, and weak.

Symptoms of OES include:

• Weeping when seeing pregnant women
• The urge to adopt all the cats
• The urge to adopt all the dogs
• The urge to adopt all the rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, and chinchillas
• The urge to hatch chicken eggs in your kitchen
• Rubbing your belly when someone talks about babies
• Feeling your ovaries try to lash out when you ovulate
• Excessive hugging of small children who aren’t yours
• Excessive morning kisses for your own children
• Holding your 10-year-old like a baby
• Failing at reminding your 7-year-old what it was like when she was a baby
• Fighting the urge to suddenly let all your kids sleep in bed with you because pretty soon they won’t even try to come into your room unless they are looking for your hidden whiskey stash
• Asking your kids if you can  hang out with their friends while they all still think you’re a “cool mom”
• Insisting your kids listen to your 90’s grunge playlist because Kurt Cobain was the shit
• Staring at your old maternity photos in bed while sobbing into your wine glass after the kids go to sleep
• Talking to all dogs like they are toddlers
• Cradling your bottle of wine before opening it
• Warning your significant other when you are ovulating
• Wondering if this will be the last time you ever ovulate
• Thinking you’re having a hot flash every time you break a sweat
• Wondering if your IUD is destroying your ovaries

I see pictures of babies, and I want all the babies. I see pictures of goats, and I want all the goats. I go to a friend’s house where I am approached by their dog…I now want all the dogs. I sit on my couch at night thinking back to the cat I saw at the animal shelter last month and can picture myself covered in all the cats. This morning my left ovary whispered to me, “Time’s almost up,” and then kicked me.

My kids already tore my stomach muscles and gave me arthritis in my hip, but my ovaries don’t seem to give a shit. They just keep pumping out little old eggs like it’s nobody’s business. Other people drink because of life’s stresses and struggles. I drink to shut my ovaries up. The struggle is real. So, if you know someone suffering from OES, do at least one of the following:

• Buy them the world’s biggest box of condoms
• Buy them a vibrator that will put all penises to shame
• Call them every time your baby wakes up in the night to remind them what no sleep feels like.
•  Offer to pay for their hysterectomy
• Bring them all your poopy diapers
• Keep them drunk until they are done with menopause