10 coping strategies for dealing with infertility

Summary: strategies for coping with infertility

1. Acknowledge your feelings: Recognize and respect your emotional response to infertility. Remember to seek support from your partner to help you manage these feelings together.
2. Talk to your friends and family: Try and include your family and friends by sharing your feelings. Opening up to your loved ones often results in support and reduces feelings of loneliness and isolation.
3. Understanding infertility: Educate yourself with trustworthy and peer-reviewed knowledge to better understand infertility, thus removing any unnecessary guilt.
4. Check if you suffer from depression: Stay vigilant for signs of depression and consult healthcare professionals early to manage these symptoms.
5. Consult with a professional: Therapy sessions from a professional therapist may help you cope with the emotional rollercoaster of infertility.
6. Focus on the present: Try to concentrate on the present to strengthen your relationship and alleviate stress, hopefully resulting in more time for things you enjoy doing and connecting with your partner, friends, or family.
7. Take good care of yourself: Focus on self-care through nutrition, exercise, and mindfulness to support your physical and emotional well-being.
8. For couples: Be honest with your partner: Try to focus on transparent and honest communication to address how infertility affects your relationship.
9. For couples: Remember that you are a team: Treat infertility as something you are going to deal with as a team, supporting each other equally and hopefully reinforcing your partnership.
10. Exploring alternative options to fulfil your dream: Consider various paths like treatment with donor gametes, adoption, and surrogacy.

We invite you to read further to gain a deeper understanding of each coping strategy. Each section provides detailed guidance and support to help you manage the complexities of infertility with compassion and informed care.

1. Acknowledge your feelings

Infertility can cause feelings of grief and stress, which are important to recognize and take seriously. Focus on communication with a partner, friend, or family member to share your feelings. It is important to share your feelings with a potential partner, even if they are different from theirs. Avoid blaming one another—infertility is not anyone’s fault. Focusing on mutual support can help maintain open communication.

Tip: Consider journaling your emotions or talk to a therapist to process these feelings.

2. Talk to your friends and family

Talking to friends and family about infertility can ease feelings of isolation. Sharing your struggles can help to reduce the emotional burden.

Tip: If opening up feels difficult, consider joining support groups where others are facing similar challenges. These safe spaces can offer understanding and practical advice. If you need support groups, we can recommend our blog post about support groups for couples struggling with infertility, where people stories about fertility treatment and dealing with infertility.

3. Understanding infertility

Educating yourself on infertility can help remove guilt and clarify any causes of it. Studies from WHO show that around 17% of all couples experience fertility problems at some point in their life. Infertility can be caused by many different reasons, but in approximately 33% of the cases, the reason is found in the man’s sperm quality. In the other 33% of the cases, the reason is found in the woman's reproductive system and in the last 33% of the cases, the reason for infertility is unknown.

Tip: Use peer-reviewed sources like the WHO to learn more about infertility, or read highly recommended books like the ones listed below.

Books that may help you cope with infertility

• Taking Charge of Your Fertility
• How to Make Love to a Plastic Cup
• It Starts with the Egg
• Conquering Infertility
• The Infertility Journey

Articles on infertility

• Infertility grief: Exploring 5 stages related to infertility
• Why am I not getting pregnant - 10 possible reasons why
• What is childlessness and how is it experienced?
• Fertility tourism: Why travel abroad?

4. Check for signs of depression

Infertility can lead to depression if emotional distress is left unaddressed. Be aware of mood changes, appetite, sleep patterns, or weight fluctuations.

Tip: Consult a healthcare professional if you notice any signs of depression. Early intervention can make a big difference in your mental well-being.

5. Consult a healthcare professional

While the support of friends and family is invaluable, there are times when the complexities of infertility require the guidance of a professional. Therapists and counsellors can help you navigate these challenging times with specialized strategies for managing infertility’s emotional challenges.

Tip: Explore different therapeutic approaches like cognitive-behavioural therapy or mindfulness techniques. A trained professional can help tailor coping strategies that work best for you.

6. Focus on the present

Trying to focus on the present is probably the easiest thing to say, but the hardest thing to do. However, it can help ease stress in your everyday life and if you are in a relationship. Try to enjoy moments with friends or a partner by reconnecting through activities you love.

Tip: Set aside time for activities unrelated to fertility treatments. It can help restore balance and relieve some pressure.

7. Take good care of yourself

Self-care is critical. Eating a healthy diet, exercising, and practising mindfulness can help ease your thoughts and worries to increase your physical and emotional health.

Tip: Try guided meditation or yoga to reduce stress. If you are about to enter fertility treatment, you can increase your chances of getting pregnant by having a regular BMI.

8. For couples: Be honest with your partner

The feelings experienced when struggling with infertility are so powerful, they may end up hurting the relationship. This makes open and honest communication important for couples struggling with infertility as it helps to avoid misunderstandings.

Tip: Schedule regular check-ins with your partner to discuss how you’re both feeling. Couples therapy can also be beneficial in maintaining a healthy relationship.

9. For couples: Remember that you are a team

Infertility is a shared challenge. Focus on being a team and working on those feelings together to maintain unity and offer mutual support.

Tip: Work together to find solutions and comfort each other during tough moments. Teamwork can strengthen your relationship.

10. Exploring alternative options to fulfil your dream

For couples struggling with infertility, alternative paths to parenthood may be required. The first step would be to enter fertility treatment with your partner's sperm. Depending on whether the problem is caused by female or male infertility, you may need to use donor sperm or donor eggs.

Tip: Any questions you may have regarding the use of donor sperm or donor eggs can be answered by our Customer Care Consultants. They are more than happy to answer every question you might have.

Frequently asked questions about dealing with infertility

How do I get over the grief of infertility?

There are a lot of things you can do to get over the grief of infertility. In this blog post, we have listed 10 strategies to use when trying to cope with infertility. Some of the strategies are:

• Try to understand infertility
• Remember to acknowledge your feelings
• Try and focus on the present
• Remember to be honest with your partner

How to cope with infertility when everyone is pregnant?

Coping with infertility is hard, but coping with infertility when everyone around you becomes pregnant is even harder. One way to cope with infertility is to try and distract yourself with exercise, mental exercises, or spending time with your family and friends.

Can a relationship survive infertility?

Yes, many relationships survive infertility. The important thing when trying to cope with infertility in a relationship is, to be honest with each other and talk about your feelings and how you are doing.

How to deal with infertility in marriage?

In marriage, there are a lot of ways to deal with infertility. Remember to acknowledge each other's feelings through conversation with your partner or friends and family. If the emotions you experience are severe enough, you may need to seek help from a professional healthcare worker.