Our Gemara discusses various forms of infertility such as damage to testicles and other reproductive organs.  Of course, one of the greatest forms of existential distress is the inability to have children. It is easy to fall into despair.  A personage no less noble than the matriarch, Rachel, declared, “Give me children, for if not, I am dead.” (Bereishis 30:1)

Yet we must also acknowledge that there are other ways for human fulfillment.  In Isaiah (56:3-5) the barren and infertile are told not to despair, that actions and Good deeds are greater than children.  Our sages teach that the Good deeds of the righteous are their true progeny (See Rashi Bereishis 6:9.)

Even those who are blessed with children sometimes must cope with disappointment.  The wish to have more children, and the regrets about how their children were raised.  This despair can lead to, literally and figuratively, non-productive actions.  I believe this idea is being expressed by the following Midrash about Adam (Eiruvin 18b):

וְאָמַר רַבִּי יִרְמְיָה בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר: כָּל אוֹתָן הַשָּׁנִים שֶׁהָיָה אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן בְּנִידּוּי, הוֹלִיד רוּחִין וְשֵׁידִין וְלִילִין, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וַיְחִי אָדָם שְׁלֹשִׁים וּמְאַת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בִּדְמוּתוֹ כְּצַלְמוֹ״, מִכְּלָל דְּעַד הָאִידָּנָא לָאו כְּצַלְמוֹ אוֹלֵיד.

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar said: All those years during which Adam was ostracized for the sin involving the Tree of Knowledge, he bore spirits, demons, and female demons, as it is stated: “And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth” (Genesis 5:3). By inference, until now, the age of one hundred thirty, he did not bear after his image, but rather bore other creatures.

Adam was in despair and his actions only produced half-hearted outcomes, actually obscene mutations.  Only once he recovered and accepted what happened, he was able to redirect his efforts and become productive.  Adam had the privilege of having more children, as some courageous Holocaust survivors were able to rebuild whole new families.  Some are not able to even build one family, while others may have regrets about their children and family. We cannot change the past, but every moment is, at least metaphorically, pregnant with possibility. 

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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