Infertility, Secondary Infertility and Miscarriages Impact Women’s Mental Health

The grief and loss you experience during a miscarriage can feel so isolating. There is a deep longing for what could have been and the dreams you allowed yourself to have. Infertility may leave you feeling like a failure, angry at your body for not working the way it is “supposed” to. Secondary infertility can feel like such an unexpected shock. You have a deep longing to expand your family and it feels so unfair that it isn’t happening.

For women with complex health issues, trying to get pregnant after loss or medical trauma can be full of anxiety and grief. The pregnancy experience looks different with a history of medical trauma. We are here to help you through the entire process, from IVF to postpartum care, adoption, surrogacy and beyond.

You may feel as if you are falling behind in life.

You feel behind your friends as they go on to expand their families. Life plans are derailed and you are feeling like everything is out of your control. Cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness techniques are helpful tools to help you cope in this difficult season of life, find support, and stop navigating this experience alone.

The dreams you had for your family feel so far away.

You’ve been dreaming of becoming a mother for years and are ready to make that happen. You feel betrayed by your body for not working the way it is supposed to. You are stuck in feelings of shame, feeling like you did something wrong.

What are the emotional impacts of pregnancy loss and infertility on women’s mental health?

Emotional Impact of Infertility and Pregnancy Loss

Depression and Anxiety

Depression and anxiety can accompany your infertility journey. You may be cycling through worries about the future, not knowing if you will be able to create a family in the way you hoped. Infertility and pregnancy loss are incredibly isolating can increase feelings of depression.

Grief and Loss

The grief you experience with infertility is unique. You are enduring the loss of imagined futures—of being a parent, of sharing a child with a partner, of creating the family you dreamed of in the way you hoped.

Shame and Guilt

Many women internalize a miscarriage or infertility as a personal failure. You may feel guilty or worry you are disappointing your partner or family.

Relationship Strain

The pressure of fertility treatments and timing intimacy can strain any relationship. It may feel like your relationship is not the same or has lost its spark.

Isolation

Infertility is often a silent struggle even though others are navigating this journey too. You may feel misunderstood or alone, especially if your friends are starting families with ease.

Third Wave Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Women’s Health Issues, Infertility and Pregnancy Loss in New York

Your expectations of motherhood and becoming a mother are not aligned with reality. You feel alone in your grief during pregnancy loss and wonder what your fertility journey will look like. You navigated cancer or chronic illness that left you unable to become a mother naturally and feel hopeless about creating your future family. CBT techniques and mindfulness in individual therapy or group therapy can provide new tools for you to stop simply surviving the day and get to a place of thriving.

The goals of trauma-informed third wave CBT techniques include:

• Recognize cognitive distortions

• Create authentically reframes that are more helpful replacement thought patterns

• Allow dialectical thinking to be present (acknowledging that two opposites can be true at the same time)

• Create new neural pathways in the brain

• Engage in different, new, and more helpful behaviors

• Turn down the volume on unpleasant and distressing emotions

• Increase feelings of acceptance of this unacceptable experience

• Utilize somatic grounding exercises to stimulate your vagus nerve and activate your parasympathetic nervous system