History Main / LawOfInverseFertility

-> '''[[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Princess Voluptua]]''': "And your family has too many kids. But you know that."

In many cases the stress of trying to have a baby will suppress fertility, and, once the couple decides to adopt or give up, the stress disappears, and: hooplah! They have a baby! Sometimes it's ''after'' they went through the hassle of adopting, [[SweetAndSourGrapes as if Mother Nature felt humorous one day]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' - In "Eight Misbehavin'", Apu and Manjula are trying to have a child with no success. Apu asks Homer how he and Marge did it, and Homer laughingly notes that each of their kids was unintentional. He then tries to [[InvokedTrope deliberately invoke this trope]] to help them - staging an entire setup where they were having sex dressed in teenage-y clothes in the backseat of a car, while Majula reads her lines in a monotone: "Oh no, [[BlatantLies I hope I don't get pregnant]]." And of course, because apparently every member of the Simpson family ''sans'' Maggie was slipping Manjula fertility drugs, they have octuplets.

* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'':
** Diane has a surprise pregnancy but aborts.
** Princess Carolyn is desperate for a family of her own despite being in her forties, but during her life has had no fewer than ''five'' miscarriages and is still unmarried. This reaches a climax in "Ruthie," when she breaks up with her fiance after miscarrying their child. However, in season five she is seeking to adopt, and in the season finale, becomes the adoptive mother of a newborn baby girl.
** In season three, upon hearing that Diane is planning on getting an abortion, Princess Carolyn sarcastically pities her for having a husband and being able to have children while she herself has neither.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/graph_2653.png]][[caption-width-right:350:Red for movies, blue for real life.]]

* Subverted in the popular module ''VideoGame/ADanceWithRogues'': [[spoiler:if the princess and Vico are in a romance, she ends up pregnant with his baby, which adds more tension to the group, as they all fear the consequences this could have due to the horrible situation they're in. Eventually, though, some of them start cautiously warming up to the idea, possibly including the princess and definitely including Vico. Then the princess is captured by the Dhorn and infected with a demonic plague that kills the baby]].

* Implied in one bit of dialogue in ''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons2014''. Margot, who has a son, thinks that Corona, who is childless, is jealous of her because of this. It's unknown if this is true, however, since Corona never says anything about it.

The RuleOfDrama, as applied to parenthood. Couples who want to have children will have trouble not only conceiving, but adopting and using surrogates as well. People who don't want children, however, will be faced with unwanted pregnancies [[ButWeUsedACondom even if they used birth control]], particularly if the conception was [[ChildByRape forced upon them]]. In fact, the page image leaves out rape, which is about 200% (that's right, you'll probably have twins). Teenagers, of course, [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin will get pregnant their first time]], double points if they [[MissConception thought they couldn't]]. The reason for this, of course, is obvious: "woman becomes pregnant with longed-for child immediately" and "woman doesn't want to get pregnant and doesn't" [[RuleOfDrama don't exactly make the most thrilling plotlines]]. At least the woman with a baby she doesn't want can give it up to the woman who is desperate to conceive--but, expect much [[TrueArtIsAngsty angst]] along the way.

* ''Manga/RequiemOfTheRoseKing'': Both sides of this trope appear, [[spoiler:and from the same person, to boot.]] Richard tries and fails to concieve a child with Anne, as his intersex anatomy has made him infertile. [[spoiler:It's during his affair with Buckingham, a relationship that had no childbearing in mind at all, that a pregnancy occurs -- namely, to ''him'', as his female parts turn out to be in working order.]]
* This is detailed extensively in the autobiographical manga ''I Don't Know How to Give Birth'' where the author and her husband find themselves incapable of concieving the old fasioned way despite their best efforts and multiple visits to a gynecologist. After a year and a half of failure, they opt for IVF, which ultimately proves to be a lot more sucessful.

* In the Literature/{{Child Ballad|s}} ''Literature/TamLin'', Fair Janet becomes pregnant after her first meeting with Tam Lin. This raises the spectre of an ArrangedMarriage to ensure that the baby is born in wedlock, and has her resorting to some desperate measures to ensure the right father marries her.

* When the Vision and the Scarlet Witch fell in love and married, they desperately wanted a child together despite the literal impossibility of that because the Vision is an android. Yet in the face of pretty much 0% odds, the Scarlet Witch so determined to make this happen that she was able to use magic and Mephisto's soul fragments (though she didn't know it at the time) to impregnate herself with twin sons that... were also 'equally Vision's' somehow. This appears to be a subversion of this trope in the face of all logic, but then the TraumaCongaLine ensues... only to wind right back to subverting it again when the Scarlet Witch gets her twin sons back again, via reincarnation.

* In "Literature/{{Tatterhood}}" , the queen is so eager to have a child, she neglects to follow the magical directions to get them.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'': Subtly implied in the opening montage: a brief shot of Carl and Ellie in a doctor's office. There's a picture of a baby on the wall so presumably, it's her OB-GYN. Ellie is crying. It's especially heartbreaking since the buildup has Carl and Ellie making a room for the baby. WordOfGod says it was a miscarriage that left Ellie unable to have more children. What we see is what little they could actually show/feel comfortable putting in a movie for their young target audience.

* In Myth/EgyptianMythology, Set, God of Storms, Deserts and Chaos, is infertile. Wanting an heir, his wife Nephthys pulls a TwinSwitch on Osiris by disguising herself as her sister Isis, getting impregnated and conceiving Anubis. This was kept a secret for a long time, with Set thinking Anubus was his biological son. When the secret comes out, he rejects Anubis, who becomes closer to Osiris as a result. One can imagine this becomes one of the driving factors behind Set murdering Osiris later on in the mythology.

* In TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse and TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken, if two werewolves engage in the forbidden act [[NoSexAllowed with one another]] despite the massive social taboos involved and punishment that will fall upon their heads if they are caught, then conception is a virtual certainty. Thanks to their dual physical/spiritual nature, this [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin frequently applies even if they]] [[ButWeUsedACondom used protection]]. The resulting offspring are (in Apocalypse) sterile, deformed and frequently insane freaks or (in Forsaken 1E) horrifyingly hideous [[FetusTerrible vengeful spirits]]. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in 2E, where it simply produces an especially powerful Wolf-Blooded.

* ''Theatre/{{Matilda}}'' plays this both ways. In the prologue, Mrs. Wormwood, who wanted anything but a second child, dishearteningly found out she was nine months pregnant with Matilda as she was preparing to compete in the Biannual International Salsa & Ballroom Dancing Championships. In the B-story told by Matilda, [[spoiler:which is later revealed to be the story of Miss Honey's parents]], the Acrobat and the Escapologist tried for years to conceive a child without success, until, on the day of their most dangerous stunt, "The Burning Woman Flying Through The Air With Dynamite In Her Hair... Caught by the Man Locked in the Cage", they found out that she was pregnant and attempted to cancel the performance; but contractual obligations forced them to perform anyway, and the Acrobat was gravely injured during the trick, dying after giving birth to their daughter.

** In the setting's backstory it was believed that Andraste, [[CrystalDragonJesus the Bride of the Maker]], was too frail to carry a child to term, so she allowed her husband to [[ChosenConceptionPartner take a concubine]] so his line wouldn't die out. After Andraste's stepsons were grown, she unexpectedly had two daughters, and even lived long enough to become a grandmother. Due to a combination of Andraste's bloodline only producing daughters, patrilineal naming traditions, the damage from the Second Blight, and [[ParentalMarriageVeto Andraste's anger]] over her younger daughter [[DatingWhatDaddyHates marrying a Tevinter Magister]], no one knows what became of Andraste's biological descendants.

* ''VideoGame/SummertimeSaga'': Tony and his wife Mia have been trying to conceive for over a year, but unfortunately Tony discovers that he's infertile. Meanwhile, MC regularly impregnates girls by accident, or uses a Pregnax pill from Dr. Singh to ensure pregnancy will result. That's why Tony asks him to become a GlorifiedSpermDonor.

** The Urashima Woman's midwife desired a child of her own, but never managed to conceive one. This eventually drove her insane, to the point that she murdered the woman and stole her child.

* In ''WebComic/KevinAndKell'', the sheep Corrie and Bruno had always wanted to have children, but they had planned on adopting to ensure they'd have a herbivore like them. (Context: Bruno is a wolf that [[TransNature transitioned]] into a herbivorous ram, and Corrie is half wolf through her father, so there was a good chance any biological child they had would be a carnivore.) When they decided to go for a biological child anyway, they tried for months until they found they wouldn't be able to have one. [[AllThereInTheManual Lindesfarne's blog]] reveals it's because Corrie has a high chance of [[DeathByChildbirth dying in childbirth]] like her mother did. They go back to their initial plan of adoption. Ironically, though, they end up adopting the ''insectivore'' Carla Chameleon.

* In ''Literature/ReceiverOfMany'' Demeter states that divine offspring are usually conceived during the first time god or goddess have sex with someone. This explains why Zeus has so many bastards running around despite the fact that he rarely beds the same women twice. However, Persephone, who actively wants to have children with her husband, cannot conceive despite her best efforts. Everyone thinks that’s because Hades is infertile. [[spoiler: The truth is that Hades and Persephone can create life together, but it doesn’t take a form of a child but energy that renews earth each time Persephone comes back to the surface.]]

* Barely subverted by Issei's parents in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'' as while they do conceive twice before Issei they aren't able to bring it to term due to Miki's poor constitution. They are told that it is quite possible that they would never be able to have a child only for Issei to be born.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'': In "Onesies", Chili’s never seen sister Brandy visits the Heeler family. It’s later revealed through kid friendly metaphor that [[spoiler: Brandy wants children but can’t have them. She loves her nieces, but seeing them is also a painful reminder.]]

* In ''Webcomic/SequentialArt'', [[http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=786 Kat obviously dreads this trope, though she's a third-party.]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=1536 Monique professes a great desire for children. Then, her lack thereof may have more to do with not earnestly pursuing the matter than infertility.]]

* ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'': Izumi and Sig tried desperately to have a child, and when Izumi finally became pregnant the child was stillborn. She was then convinced that she [[spoiler:killed her child a second time when she attempted to transmute the child to life, though thankfully this was eventually shown to not be the case]]. For this, her "divine punishment" from the Truth was to lose her uterus along with a few other organs, effectively making her infertile there on out ''and'' giving her a nasty mixture of IncurableCoughOfDeath plus BloodFromTheMouth [[spoiler: which either kills her in the end ([[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime]]) or is sorta healed by Ed and Al's father ([[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist manga and second anime]]).]]

* ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'': Izumi and Sig tried desperately to have a child, and when Izumi finally became pregnant the child was stillborn. She was then convinced that she [[spoiler:killed her child a second time when she attempted to transmute the child to life, though thankfully this was eventually shown to not be the case]]. For this, her "divine punishment" from the Truth was to lose her uterus along with a few other organs, effectively making her infertile there on out ''and'' giving [[IllGirl her]] a nasty mixture of IncurableCoughOfDeath plus BloodFromTheMouth [[spoiler: which either kills her in the end ([[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime]]) or is sorta healed by Ed and Al's father ([[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist manga and second anime]]).]]

* In many versions of the oft-edited Myth/KingArthur stories, Arthur and Guinevere want an heir but can't produce one, while a single dalliance with a woman who [[BrotherSisterIncest turned out to be his half-sister]] led to conception, birth, and eventually the child, [[BastardBastard Mordred]], and Arthur inflicting a MutualKill on each other at Camlann.
** This is also true of Lancelot who fathered Galahad after [[BedTrick one night with Elaine]]. Guinevere has been considered barren for a long time in the mythos, as evidenced by "Vanora's Mound" in Scotland.

* ZigZagged by [[TheParagon The Boss]] in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', who was written to be a motherly woman in accordance with the game's maternity theme, but her own family life was a disaster. While she managed to successfully birth a child ([[TheAce during]] ''[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Operation Overlord]]'' no less), he was kidnapped by the AncientConspiracy who then forced her to kill her lover and the father of their child, [[PosthumousCharacter The Sorrow]]. After that, she was rendered infertile from her involvement in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Buster%E2%80%93Jangle Operation Buster–Jangle]]. As a result, she compensated by becoming a FatherToHisMen and a surrogate mother to 15-year-old Big Boss.

** While none of the Simpson kids were planned, with Bart's conception before Homer and Marge were married actually leading to their ShotgunWedding, Maggie was the one who really proved this rule. Her conception occurred ''just'' when Homer had settled his debts, told Mr. Burns to TakeThisJobAndShoveIt, and started a [[HappinessInMinimumWage lower-paying job he loved]], and despite the fact that he was virtually sterile by that point.

** While none of the Simpson kids were planned, with Bart's conception before Homer and Marge were married actually leading to their ShotgunWedding, Maggie was the one who really proved this rule. Her conception occurred ''just'' when Homer had settled his debts, told Mr. Burns to TakeThisJobAndShoveIt, and started a [[HappinessInMinimumWage lower-paying job he loved]].

--->''(An intertitle reads "SECONDS LATER," followed by a visual of one of Homer's punch-drunk sperm managing to make it to Marge's egg.)''