Taking care of your emotional wellbeing is essential when you’re navigating fertility treatments. The rigorous appointment schedules, the toll it takes on romantic relationships, the grief and anger inherent in an infertility diagnosis – all this and more can be crippling without the right tools and support.

Equip Your Emotional Support Toolkit for a Smoother Infertility Journey

While there’s no such thing as “stress-free fertility treatment,” we notice a big difference between our GIVF patients who make self-care and emotional support a priority and those who don’t. Patients who build and use their emotional support toolkit:

• Have a strong support network that they can rely on when times get tough.
• Sleep better.
• Have multiple ways to meet the strong “shadow” emotions when they come up (fear, anger, rage, sadness, grief, anxiety, etc.).
• Maintain more romantic, connected, and intimate relationships with their partners.
• Take better care of their physical well-being.

While these patients still have tough times, we notice those who prioritize self-care during fertility treatments have a smoother, overall experience.

To that end, we want to share five core themes that we observe in patients who make a point to get the support they need and acquire the self care tools they need to remain rock solid at their core.

1. Identify your support network

As you well know, the infertility journey starts long before you have a diagnosis. It begins with the first of multiple failed pregnancy tests or miscarriages. Then comes the infertility diagnosis, which is its own version of heartbreak. Finally, you embark on the infertility journey, which is fraught with dramatic ups and downs.

When you align this experience with a timeline, individuals and couples are often looking at months and years of a marathon that doesn’t have a clear finish line. Identifying your support network becomes critical – and we’re talking about a network beyond your partner (who experiences their personal version of the journey).

• Family: If there are family members you trust and who are good at holding unconditional space while you vent (no fixing, changing, or advice-giving unless asked), that’s great. There’s Rung 1 of the support ladder.
• Friends: Some friends are far better than others when it comes to being present with others’ pain and providing a quality ear/heart/space to hear you.

We recommend sharing ‘How Can I Help a Friend Struggling With Infertility‘ with anyone in your inner circle so they have a better understanding of your experience.

• Infertility support groups. There are both in-person and virtual infertility support groups out there. These groups can be phenomenal because you get to share your burden with others who understand exactly what you’re going through.
• Infertility podcasts. Equally important are infertility podcasts where you can listen to others’ experiences just about anywhere you are. Many include interviews with infertility experts, and all tend to exquisitely blend tender-hearted honesty with humor. Some of our favorites include This is Infertility (hosted by Progyny, one of the leading family-building health benefits providers) and The Queer Family Podcast.

Finally, your fertility specialist, nurses, and staff should also feel like a direct source of compassion and support. When you’re choosing a fertility specialist, make sure they feel like people you can lean on and trust while pouring your heart out.

2. Practicing breathing and relaxation techniques

Learning how to use breath and other relaxation techniques is a wise move for anyone when it comes to managing daily stressors, but they’re especially important for those undergoing fertility treatments.

Reducing your stress levels is one of the best things you can do to enhance fertility naturally, but it’s easier said than done. While there are plenty of online resources available (and a local yoga or meditation class can also be helpful), we recommend exploring some of the many mindfulness and relaxation apps to get started.

3. Start practicing healthy sleep habits

Your sleep cycle is a foundation of overall health. Lack of high-quality sleep affects everything from reproductive hormone balance and immune system strength to emotional well-being and metabolism. In other words, a good night’s sleep is essential.

While most of our patients are phenomenal about giving up unhealthy habits and eating a fertility-friendly diet, many still struggle with sleep – especially when the going gets tough. Some of the basics of getting a good night’s sleep include:

• Maintaining consistent sleep/wake times.
• Minimizing screen time for at least 30 to 60 minutes before bed (and keep gadgets out of the bedroom).
• Creating a bedtime ritual (warm bath, calming essential oils, a cup of warm milk or herbal tea, etc.) that signals the brain that it’s time to sleep.
• Using relaxing breathing exercises, guided meditation, or other relaxing practices to help you unwind.

Emotional resilience improves when we’re better rested.

4. Connect with a therapist who specializes in infertility

A high-quality therapist who specializes in infertility is invaluable for individuals and couples when they’re navigating infertility.

Infertility counseling offers a space for you to wholly and honestly release what you keep pent up most of the time and to develop the same types of tools we’re talking about here. It also gives you a place to explore your options and think about the long-term effects of today’s fertility treatment choices.

The sooner you start forging a relationship with a therapist you trust, the easier it will be to discuss some of the more complicated issues that may arise if your IVF cycles aren’t as successful as you’d hoped they would be:

• Using donor egg or sperm.
• Considering a gestational carrier.
• When to take a break from treatments for a while.

We can provide you a list of trusted therapists that counsel people struggling with infertility.

5. Prioritize things that bring you joy

We’re all for learning to say “No’ to anything (or anyone) that doesn’t serve you, especially during fertility treatments when your emotional and chronological calendar time is so precious. Do a personal inventory and keep a list of items that bring you joy. They don’t have to be very complicated.

Start making sure to bring yourself into contact with both the small and large things that bring you joy on a daily and weekly basis. Your infertility diagnosis is NOT your identity, even though it feels that way sometimes.

GIVF Fertility Prioritizes Our Patients’ Emotional Well-Being

Are you looking for fertility specialists who care for your body, mind, and spirit? While we prioritize making your fertility dreams come true, the team at GIVF ensures that compassion and whole-person support are at the heart of what we do. Contact us to schedule a consultation, and we’ll show you why our specialists continue to be voted the DMV area’s Top Doctors year after year.