As a uterus owner who’s trying to get pregnant, you’re probably well aware of how stressful infertility can be. You might feel anxious, depressed, or angry—and it can be hard to deal with those feelings on your own. A therapist can help you come up with coping strategies and find ways to manage those emotions so they don’t interfere with the treatment process.
Understanding Fertility Treatment
You may be wondering what fertility treatment is, and how it works. Fertility treatment is any procedure used to help you get pregnant. There are many types of fertility treatments, including:
- In vitro fertilization (IVF) – With this method, eggs are removed from the ovaries and fertilized with sperm in a laboratory. The resulting embryos are then transferred into the uterus through a catheter during an outpatient procedure at an IVF center or hospital.
- Intrauterine insemination (IUI) – With this method, sperm directly enters the uterus through the cervix during an outpatient procedure at an infertility clinic or hospital so that conception can occur naturally within the body without IVF treatment being necessary.
How long does it take for these methods to work?
There is no way to predict how long it will take for these methods to work. Some couples may become pregnant after just one treatment, while others may need several tries before becoming pregnant.
Coping with Infertility
Having difficulty talking about infertility? You’re not alone. Infertility can be a difficult thing to talk about, and it may be hard to know where to start or what words will help you feel better. It’s not just the physical symptoms of infertility that are challenging; it’s also having to deal with the feelings that come along with them, like sadness, anger and frustration–feelings many people don’t know how (or want) to express in words. This is where a therapist familiar with infertility can help.
Coping with Miscarriage or Stillbirth
There are many ways to cope with miscarriage or stillbirth. You may feel like you need to talk about what happened, or perhaps you’d rather not. Either way, it’s important to express yourself in a healthy way and seek support from loved ones and a therapist who will listen without judgment.
Talking about your feelings can be helpful as well–and therapy can help you find the words for those emotions that are difficult to put into words on your own. Therapy will also give you the tools to deal with the next pregnancy.
If you are grieving after having had a miscarriage or stillbirth, here are some things that might help:
- Understand that it was not your fault (and most often isn’t). Miscarriage happens when something goes wrong with a pregnancy before 20 weeks of gestation (the length of time between conception and birth). Most miscarriages occur within the first trimester; however, some women miscarry later than this due to chromosomal abnormalities such as Down Syndrome babies being born prematurely instead of stillborns.*
A therapist can help you deal with the feelings and emotions that come up during fertility treatment.
A therapist can help you deal with the feelings and emotions that come up during fertility treatment. For example, if you are struggling with infertility, a therapist can assist in coming to terms with this fact and give support as you work through your grief.
A therapist can also help explain your fertility treatment options so that they make sense to you and allow for open communication between partners or family members if needed.
Therapists are trained to assist individuals dealing with miscarriage or stillbirth by providing support through their own personal experience as well as offering guidance on ways for grieving parents-to-be to adjust their expectations about future pregnancies based on what has happened before (i.e., “I know that being pregnant again won’t be easy because my first child died during birth”).
I hope this article has given you a better understanding of how a therapist can help with fertility treatment. Whether it’s coping with the emotions that come up during treatment, or just needing someone to talk to about your situation, therapy can be an invaluable resource. It’s important not to let infertility get in the way of living your life and enjoying the process along the way.
If you’d like to learn more about infertility and mental health check out this article.
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