Searching for an ideal place to conceive can be emotionally trying, often feeling isolated as friends and family celebrate pregnancy announcements or gender reveal results on social media. Furthermore, infertility may lead to straining relationships.
Inform family and friends of the emotional impact fertility struggles have on individuals. This will help dispel misconceptions and promote empathy and understanding among all parties involved.
1. Embrace Change
Finding themselves struggling to conceive can be an exhausting and isolating journey that consumes time, money, energy and mental space that should otherwise be dedicated to activities they enjoy or spending with family and friends. Their journey may involve hope followed by disappointment as well as emotional rollercoasters.
For some couples, infertility can become a source of conflict within their relationship, due to increased emphasis on fertility treatments and precision scheduling of sexual encounters that leads to feelings of sexual dissatisfaction (Cousineau & Domar 2007).
Additionally, infertility treatments can involve unfamiliar or sensitive topics that are hard to broach with one’s partner, particularly around egg and sperm donation, surrogacy and adoption. Couples must decide which of these paths they would like to explore more seriously (Casu et al. 2019; Pasch & Sullivan 2017).
Couples going through infertility should seek professional advice if their communication is becoming straining or they become emotionally distant from one another. A therapist experienced with working with infertile couples can teach strategies to enhance communication and increase emotional connections among members of a couple.
2. Maintain Healthy Relationships
When it comes to infertility, it may feel as if you and your partner are the only ones experiencing difficulty conceiving. With friends and family announcing pregnancies or sharing gender reveals on social media, it may cause you to question if something is amiss with your relationship or if maybe you simply do not wish to become parents.
If you and your partner are having difficulty conceiving, it’s vital that communication remains open and honest. Furthermore, make time for self-care by engaging in activities that bring joy; doing this can reduce stress while improving overall wellness.
Infertility can have a dramatic impact on relationships both physical and emotional. Couples can often feel emotionally strain during treatment. Couples therapy may provide an effective means of communicating more clearly and overcoming any potential roadblocks in your relationship during this challenging period.
Balance the demands of work and family while facing fertility difficulties can be challenging, and it can be easy to become fixated on having a baby as your ultimate goal. But life goes on after your fertility journey has finished; if you find yourself spending too much time focused on these goals or feeling distant from your partner, speaking with a counselor might provide invaluable support.
3. Find Support
Couples experiencing infertility often feel alone on their journey. With friends and family celebrating pregnancy announcements and gender reveals on social media, it may feel as if you’re the only ones struggling. Forming a support system can help ease feelings of isolation while providing an open forum to discuss difficult topics with your partner – this might involve reaching out to other couples going through similar experiences, or finding an experienced counselor or therapist with expertise helping couples navigate infertility.
Spending quality time doing activities you enjoy together can also be helpful for relieving fertility challenges, providing an outlet and distracting from thoughts of infertility issues. Perhaps try going to a new restaurant, sports game, or vacation location!
Counselors can also help couples process emotions and manage grief associated with fertility struggles, and find ways to reconnect. Studies show that Emotionally-Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT) can be especially useful for couples trying to conceive who experience marital distress due to infertility issues; providing them with a safe space where communication patterns can be aligned as they work on strengthening connections by giving hope and enabling meaningful-based coping (Casu et al, 2019; Pasch & Sullivan 2017; Soleimani et al, 2014).
4. Manage Stress
As infertility can be an emotionally draining journey, couples should seek support from family, friends and professionals like counselors in order to manage stress in healthy ways such as exercising regularly, eating nutritiously and getting adequate rest.
Stress relief can also be achieved through practicing relaxation techniques like meditation and yoga. Couples should learn to say no to invitations or responsibilities that might be too emotionally draining; it is acceptable for them to decline invitations for baby showers, birthday parties and other social events if they feel overwhelmed by them.
Couples must spend quality time doing things they enjoy together so they can remember who they were before the fertility process began. This could involve gazing upon old photos or writing down activities they love doing together. Attending counseling sessions specializing in fertility issues can also provide invaluable support and foster healthier communication between partners.
Finally, couples need to find meaning in their fertility experiences and this can be challenging when dealing with grief or depression symptoms. Therapists trained in emotion-focused cognitive therapy (EFCT) provide safe spaces where couples can work through their feelings while developing coping mechanisms to move forward in life.
