IVF can make your life feel organized around the next piece of information.
How many follicles are growing? How many eggs were retrieved? How many fertilized? How many embryos made it to blastocyst? What did genetic testing show? Did the transfer work?
Each answer seems to lead to another period of waiting.
And when becoming a parent matters this much, it can feel almost impossible not to search for some way to know what will happen next.
Why IVF Can Create So Much Anxiety
Fertility treatment asks you to invest enormous amounts of time, energy, money, and hope into a process you cannot fully control.
You may find yourself analyzing symptoms, researching statistics, comparing your numbers with someone else's, searching online forums, or replaying conversations with your doctor.
You might think, If I can just understand enough, maybe I'll feel better.
Sometimes information does help. But sometimes the search for certainty becomes exhausting because there simply isn't an answer yet.
The next scan has to happen. The embryo has to develop. The test result has to come back. The pregnancy test has to be taken.
You are left waiting.
When Waiting Becomes the Hardest Part
For many people going through IVF, uncertainty can become as difficult as the procedures themselves.
You may feel unable to make plans because you don't know where you'll be in treatment. You may struggle to concentrate at work. Pregnancy announcements may suddenly feel painful. Your emotions may shift between hope and dread within the same day.
You may even feel pressure to stay positive, as though allowing yourself to feel afraid could somehow affect the outcome.
Therapy doesn't make IVF predictable.
Instead, it can offer a place to understand what uncertainty brings up for you and how you respond when something this important is outside your control.
You can hope without forcing yourself to feel optimistic every moment.
You can be frightened without assuming that fear means something bad will happen.
And you can allow this experience to be difficult without having to solve every feeling that comes with it.
Infertility & IVF Therapy in St. Louis, Missouri and Illinois
Infertility and fertility treatment can bring anxiety, grief, uncertainty, relationship strain, and decisions you never expected to face. Therapy can provide space to understand what you're experiencing without feeling pressure to immediately make it better.
Joanna Haydon, JD, LCSW provides infertility and IVF therapy in St. Louis and online in Chicago and throughout Missouri and Illinois. She works with adults navigating infertility, IVF and IUI, pregnancy loss, failed embryo transfers, fertility-related anxiety and grief, and decisions about family building.
Learn more about Infertility, IVF & Pregnancy Loss Therapy or request a consultation to learn more about working together.