I have focussed a lot on this subject on my blog and this is largely because, from experience, psychological symptoms are the most common and difficult to deal with, in any struggle with infertility.
The psychological effects of
infertility are many and varied and very real. Parenting is viewed as a natural
transition in life and so when our efforts to this end, is frustrated, then
anxiety, stress and depression results.
In my struggles with infertility,
I hid my feelings and struggled alone for the greater part, because I felt that
people would think that I was over reacting. What I was feeling, I did not
understand that they were as natural as air is to breathing. I did not know
that feeling jealous of persons, including close friends and even my family
members who were having babies, was natural. I did not know that feeling a sense of loss, anger, pity and inadequacy was also natural. How could I, when I
knew of no one who was going through similar circumstances, which would make me
understand more. As a result of this, I held on to the notion that I was
overreacting and for far too long, until I started believing it and felt a lot
of shame. Sadly when people finally found out about my struggles, some did in
fact felt that I was over reacting. I guess the saying “don’t judge a man unless you have walked a mile in his shoe” comes
to mind here.
I came across an article recently
that looks, in detail, at the psychological effects of infertility and how
these symptoms, continue into treatment. It also looks at types of
interventions that might help to deal with these symptoms.
Please refer to the link below for more on this subject.
Please refer to the link below for more on this subject.
From the
article:-
“Stress, depression and
anxiety are described as common consequences of infertility. A number of
studies have found that the incidence of depression in infertile couples
presenting for infertility treatment is significantly higher than in fertile
controls, with prevalence estimates of major depression in the range of 15%-54%
(Domar 1992; Demyttenaere 1998; Parikh 2000; Lukse 1999; Chen 2004). Anxiety
has also been shown to be significantly higher in infertile couples when
compared to the general population, with 8%-28% of infertile couples reporting
clinically significant anxiety (Anderson 2003; Chen 2004; Parikh 2000).”
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