• by Michael Shields , January 25, 2005

Here's SOMETHING YOU DON'T SEE in most parenting or women's health magazines: "How to... Give Yourself or Someone Else an Injection," along with a two-page spread of step-by-step pictures.

Sound a bit gruesome? We thought so too, and even cringed a bit, until we spent some time delving through the second issue of Conceive magazine.

It turns out that shots are a big part of fertility treatment. And if you were faced with assisting a spouse with such a task, or with trying to grasp many other similarly emotionally charged issues surrounding pregnancy and fertility, wouldn't you like some trusted, anonymous help?

That is where Conceive, launched last fall, attempts to step in. Co-founders Kim Hahn and Rob Clarkson each have several years of personal experience in struggling to get pregnant to draw from.

Therefore, Conceive covers some of the touchiest subject matter out there--and it does so wonderfully. At its core, it is a service magazine, speaking with a necessary authoritative voice on matters best left to experts and doctors.

Upfront, the quarterly contains "The Consulting Room"--a reader Q&A where reproductive endocrinologists Dr. Michael Darder and Susan Treiser field inquiries such as: "My mother had a lot of trouble getting pregnant--does that mean I might have problems too?"

Throughout, Conceive provides an outlet for women to answer sensitive questions, and to test the veracity of conventional wisdom when the answers are so crucial.

This magazine doesn't shy away from the hard stuff--including dealing with the emotions of being infertile.

Yet the editorial isn't all heavy--there are pieces on pre-pregnancy workouts and vacation retreats to aid in conception. A regular column, "Boxers & Briefs," provides the male point of view on conception worries in an honest and humorous fashion.

The spring issue also features a practical and comprehensive guide to medical insurance in all 50 states for infertility diagnosis and treatment.

But at its best, the editors of Conceive score when asking potential moms tough, quite personal questions. Like whether a woman's previous lifestyle choices--such as years of hard partying or even previous surgeries and illnesses--will affect their ability to get pregnant.

Overall, Conceive does what a great niche magazine should--zero in on a specific topic that is of high interest to those in the category, and expound upon a variety of subjects in an exhaustive fashion. At a time when the ultra-niche magazine rules, from our perspective, Conceive is one of the best we've seen in a while.