← Return to The emotional toll of IVF

Discussion

The emotional toll of IVF

Fertility & Reproductive Health | Last Active: Dec 4, 2019 | Replies (15)

Comment receiving replies
@abcdefghi

Hey so following up with this convo (sorry I was on vacation the past two weeks), to those who did go to a therapist, HOW did you find it helpful? Like @loren12 you mentioned "the therapist I did find has helped me in ways I didn’t even know I needed" - like in what ways were they helpful?

@paddingtonk, you stated "I can let him know how I feel like I am a failure because it’s my body that is letting us down". I can 100% relate to you. In fact, I basically said this thing to my husband last night regarding my failed body image. I think we are in the same boat. It is hard not to get angry at God or even myself and my body.

@minnesotamrsa , To answer your question, I don't go to therapy but I am wondering if I should. I am starting to begin the process of thinking of myself as a barren women who can't have kids. And that sentence alone is quite difficult for me to type, even more difficult to internalize and begin to accept. I guess, I just don't know how this process should look. Or in the bigger picture - how a person going through infertility should look. I get that everyone is different and unique, but I need more of a framework, a template so to say, for how to cope and how to handle all of this. Or I should say handle this better... or if how I am handling it now is enough.

Jump to this post


Replies to "Hey so following up with this convo (sorry I was on vacation the past two weeks),..."

@abcdefghi I should start off by saying that if you can find someone who actually specializes in this area that would probably be at the top of my list but I was unable to find someone who did and that I could get into. I got really lucky with the therapist I found and while she doesn’t specialize in fertility she sees a large number of women who struggle with it and therefore is pretty great at helping! My therapist has really worked with me not just on the fertility stuff makes me feel but how it affects my entire life. She has helped me work on ways to communicate, how to cope, how to advocate for myself. She has really been someone who just truly listens and makes me feel safe to share where sometimes that isn’t always as easy with friends or even sometimes family. Fertility has taken a toll on my marriage as well and she has really helped me look at how I can work to keep that from getting out of hand. All in all it has just really been a blessing to have a safe place to cry, laugh, share all the big and small things and to never feel judged.