10 Tips For Coping With Infertility

After a diagnosis of fertility problems, try these ten tips for coping with infertility. A jumble of confusing emotions normally follows the diagnosis, including isolation and depression. Don’t let infertility ruin your life. Learn to cope and regain your optimism.

1. Mood swings. It’s okay to cry or feel angry or sad. An infertility diagnosis stuns and hurts. The what-ifs overwhelm and the fear of the unknown raises stress levels. One of the best tips for coping with infertility is to simply honor what you feel.
2. Relax. Infertility causes stress and anxiety to skyrocket. Couples worry about the impact of the diagnosis on their marriage and the cost of treatment or adoption. Learning to relax is an absolute must when coping with infertility. Consider a couple’s yoga class or meditation seminar.
3. Stay fit. Peak health optimizes the chances of success for the various medical treatment options for infertility. Excess fat harbors hormones like estrogen that wreak havoc on the delicate reproductive system. As a bonus, exercise and good nutrition reduce stress.
4. Strength in numbers. Join a support group. Options include face-to-face meetings in your city or online forums. Find comfort, support and advice from these groups filled with people who have experienced everything you are now feeling.
5. Listen. Maintain open lines of communication. Don’t internalize your fears and concerns about infertility. Share them with your partner. She may feel the same or have vastly different worries. Honor one another’s emotions in this trying time. Remember that neither of you are mind readers. Tell her how she can help you and vice versa.
6. Set Limits. When coping with infertility, the last thing a couple needs to hear is useless or hurtful advice from friends or family. Discuss limits on the information you and your partner will share with others. Other helpful limits might include the so-called twenty minute rule, when couples only talk about infertility for twenty minutes a day.
7. Hit the books. Put those dormant studying skills to work. Browse a bookstore or grab some pamphlets from your doctor’s office about infertility. An educated patient helps the assisted reproduction process move along much more smoothly.
8. Take control. When coping with infertility, a loss of control is often experienced. To regain that control, be proactive with your doctor. Help create a treatment plan. If trying an injectable cycle of fertility drugs, offer to give your partner her shots.
9. Consider all options. Remember families come in all shapes and sizes. Look into foster or adoption programs. Surrogacy remains a popular option for some couples coping with infertility. Childfree living is another perfectly valid choice.
10. You must have hope. In such stressful times, remaining optimistic may seem laughable. Keep in mind thousands of infertile couples successfully conceive and deliver healthy babies every year. Others add to their families with fostering or adoption. Optimism trumps pessimism any day!