Indeed a positive urine HCG test makes you delighted during infertility treatments. But suppose you fail to get a positive result for pregnancy several times. It is a very emotional and psychological issue. This article is on “how to cope with the Emotional and Psychological Impact of Infertility.”
Infertility
As fertility consultants, we often get many couples with infertility (Subfertility). If you consider the figures, they usually vary around the world. Usually, it may range from 5% to 25%, depending on the country and the region.
The exact definition of infertility is the failure to conceive a successful pregnancy after one year of regular sexual intercourse.
We define a couple with infertility/ subfertility only for the process of making you fertile. However, the psychosocial and emotional aspect of labeling as a couple with infertility is challenging to cope with.
Psychological Impact of Infertility – labeling as infertile is hard
Nowadays, it is common to delay having a baby. Most couples do not like to have a baby straight after marriage. They need some more time to stabilize their background, understand each other and enjoy their sex life. Therefore they delay the baby a few years.
However, when they decide to have a baby, the female partner’s age has already exceeded the “fertile age.” As a result, the couple may not get pregnant fast as they want.
Although they waited for years without a baby, the decision to be a family makes them impatient till they get a baby.
But suppose you failed to conceive by 1 year of sexual intercourse to have a baby. In that case, you are a couple with infertility.
How do you feel about hearing as a subfertility couple? I know it is challenging. But we can work on that.
The Emotional and Psychological Impact on Yourself
Anyone knows how it feels when they feel to reach a dream. But delay in getting pregnant is an even tough situation.
One of the studies among subfertility females shows a 40% psychological illness prevalence among females. These included depression, anxiety disorder and etc.
Even though infertility is not an illness, the mental impact of this may do a lot of harm to you. This includes a lack of self-esteem, lack of happiness, and failure to proceed with your sexual life.
The Emotional and Psychological Impact of your Husband
I know you spend thousands of hours murmuring to each other. But the whole relationship will be changed when you fail to succeed as a subfertility couple.
The Social aspect of the Infertility
More than two of the above factors, the most troublesome emotional and psychological damage is caused by society. Especially in some cultures, labeling as infertile is like a mess.
The causes of infertility are 40% from males, 40% from females, and 20% from the combined factors. Even though female causes 40% of infertility, the whole blame is directed at females in some cultures. You may have to cope this psychological impact of infertility alone.
How do subfertility treatments cause psychological impact?
Being infertile makes you a lot of psychological issues. Sometimes you even can’t predict those issues. However, do other factors worsen the psychological issues during the infertile period? Yes. Infertility treatment itself causes a lot of emotional and psychological impacts.
1. psychological loss of failure to afford the fertility treatments
Infertility treatments are pretty expensive. These include fees for investigation, medication, procedures, and consultation.
For example, an IVF cycle may cost around 12,400$ in the United States.
Although some insurance covers fertility treatments, most insurance will not cover the fee for infertility treatment. You may feel distressed about failure to afford fertility treatments in such a situation.
So there is an emotional and psychological impact associated with failure to afford infertility treatment. Therefore we have to give our concerns on the economic stress which worsen the psychological impact of infertility.
2. Fear about the infertility treatment procedures
One of the other psychological trauma is the fear of undergoing treatments. As we know, there are a lot of different fertility treatment options. This includes Ovulation Induction, Intra Uterine Insemination (IUI), and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Whatever the treatment, there are atleast a few complications. In addition, there may be some invasive procedures that may cause a little bit of pain.
Although you may not consider these emotions, they play a significant role in reducing the the success rate of a fertility treatment. Because while infertility cause a lot emotional and psychological distress, these stressors again causes further reduction in fertility rate.
Therefore all these emotional issues cause considerable distress to male and female partners before selecting treatment options. So we have to make sure that the couple is emotionally and psychologically fit enough for the treatments. Unless the best option is to seek a psychological help.
3. Psychological side effects of subfertility medications
Some drugs like Clomid (Clomiphene) are known to cause some mood changes and depression. So even though Clomid is a very successful ovulation induction agent, some couples are not happy to use it due to these psychological issues.
Side effects of the Clomid Ovulation Induction
Another well-known medication is Femara (Letrozole). This is said to be having very few side effects. However, even the Ovulation Induction with Femara is also causing some psychological side effects.
Therefore it is very important to consider the side effects of fertility medications to the couple. Unless these psychological impact of infertility medications itself causes infertility.
Steps to Cope with the psychological Impact of Infertility
1. Select an affordable fertility team.
As mentioned, fertility treatments are not covered by insurance in many countries. In such situations, you must tolerate all the medical bills associated with fertility treatments.
One option for you is to select a team with an affordable fee for their treatment process. But surprisingly, we can help you to undergo your fertility process in Sri Lanka for a very low price.
You can contact our expert team to do your fertility treatments in a affordable cost.
2. Get help from a psychologist or counselor specializing in sexual health
As mentioned, fertility treatment needs a lot of education and discussion. Unless it causes lot of psychological damage. The prevalence of psychological illness are much higher in infertility than any of the chronic diseases like CKD, Cancers, Asthma and etc.
Therefore when you need to cope with the emotional and psychological impact of the infertility, you need to contact a psychologist. Also the progressive education and assessment is a must to prevent psychological distress. Some research has shown a positive impact on the rate of pregnancy associated with psychotherapy too.
So it is essential to have fertility treatment and psychological counseling going hand in hand.
3. Have some free time
When you start the fertility treatment, it goes as a cascade of treatments. The initial part of the treatment process will probably be some counseling and behavioral changes, which may make you fertile. Then the time available, you will undergo ovulation induction and further treatments.
So are you tired of your fertility treatments? Don’t worry. It’s the best time to leave the fertility treatment and rest adequately. This is one of the best ways to avoid psychological stress of infertility and it’s treatments. Also it will help you to cope with the negative psychological impact associated with the infertility.
So if you break the treatments and have a break, it will tie your bond with your husband while improving your mental, emotional and hormonal balance.
What about the resuming of treatments? Don’t worry, we can resume the treatments when both are stable enough for the treatments.
4. Find support groups
There are many support groups to take care of your emotions during infertility. Therefore you do not need to cope with the psychological impact of infertility alone. You can contact your local support group for fertility issues. They will support you in many ways;
How a support group can help to cope with infertility
- Help to cope with infertility.
- Share the experience of fertility treatments.
- Share the psychological experience during infertile period.
- Listen to your difficult emotional , psychological, social experience.
- Supports the decision making process.
Also, the other most important group is your family members, relatives, and friends. Make sure you get positive support from them instead of getting it negatively. As you can reach them anytime, you can share your negative emotions.
Nowadays, you will find other inspiring support groups for infertility issues on Facebook, like social media. I have seen many successful groups as such.
- They are often sharing the successful stories which inspiring you.
- They will help to share the negative emotions.
- Often there are atleast few members to support online.
However, it is very important to get medical advice before following the advice given by non-medical people. Also, make sure you avoid sharing your sensitive personal information with strangers.
5. Practice Relaxation techniques
When you are emotionally or psychologically unfit, relaxation techniques are the most crucial steps to come out of stress.
You can follow these techniques to relax
- Have an adequate sleep
- Have nutritious foods
- Practice Yoga
- Practice light exercise
- Read some interesting novel
Following these relaxation techniques will help you to keep positive and relax psychological state to cope with infertility. Also they will keep your hormonal balance. It is one of the most crucial points to get a positive impact to your infertility. Also it will helps to cope with the psychological impact of infertility and it’s treatments.
6. Try Sex therapy
Are you enjoying the sex? I hope not. Because it is common to have unpleasant intercourse during the infertile period.
It may have become just a planned process that does not generate any jobs.
It is time to re-focus on your sexual life. Even though you do not believe it, it has a huge potential to get out of mental issues.
7. Dream about your baby
Yes, you are pretty tired of trying different procedures to get pregnant. Also cope with infertility is very difficult task. I have experienced it with hundreds of my patients.
But, imagine how do you feel if you have a baby? Indeed it is a fantastic feeling. It will wash off all your emotional and psychological stressors in few minutes.
So it’s time to dream about your baby. It will make you stronger day by day whenever you feel emotionally and psychologically down. Although you will not believe, it has a significant impact to improve your fertility too.
Therefore do not under estimate the positive impact of dreaming about your baby. It’s high time to start dreaming to avoid negative psychological impact of infertility.
Wish you a success
I know all your effort is to have a baby. But it is not a challenging task. Because a large proportion of couples with fertility issues get pregnant by counseling. Most of the others get pregnant with some simple techniques like ovulation induction. So most couples do not need much fertility interventions. However even in a complicated situation, your doctor will have many option to get out of infertility. Also he will often help you to cope with infertility and it’s psychological impacts.
Finally, every couple deserves to have atleast one baby. I believe every one of you will have that surprising news soon.