How Fertility Coaching Can Help You Deal with Infertility
This article has been submitted by Andreia Trigo RN BSc MSc, Fertility Nurse & Coach.
If you are going through infertility and your emotions are all over the place, you are not alone. In fact, this journey is a roller coaster of emotions and this is where fertility coaching can help. In a recent study, patients going through fertility challenges have reported that 90% felt depressed, 42% felt suicidal, 50% reported it was the most upsetting experience of their lives and 4 in 10 experienced PTSD after miscarriage.
These feelings may be triggered for different reasons:
- not being able to grow your family when you want, and the way you had planned
- stigma and social pressure
- feelings of isolation
- financial pressure
- need to make/delay decisions around professional career
- coping with recurrent loss
- and the emotional stress of making important decisions as a couple, who may at certain times, feel differently about motivation to treatment, length and type of treatment, have different coping strategies, or different opinions on what to do when treatment fails.
The bottom line is that regardless of how complex a physical problem may be impacting on your fertility, it is actually the emotional distress that will probably make you quit treatment.
A way of getting support is through Fertility Coaching. A fertility coach is someone who guides you in your journey. Often, they have been through it themselves and can relate to the challenges you are going through. Apart from personal experience, a fertility coach also has a particular set of professional skills and competencies to provide the emotional and physical support that people require. This often includes a medical degree (to understand the physical aspects of fertility) and a CBT/NLP coaching qualification (to provide emotional support).
The support provided by a fertility coach may be emotional, covering all the aspects discussed above, and/or physical, helping you with practical aspects of fertility treatment like medication, making changes to your diet, environment etc.
Here’s 8 reasons how a fertility coach can help you during fertility treatment:
- Managing anxiety, stress, depression, expectations
- Communication and difficult conversations
- Making decisions
- Strategies for key moments (before/after embryo transfer, two-week wait)
- Motivation and commitment to treatment
- Improving your health for fertility (nutrition, physical activity, environment, habits)
- Setting up goals, action plans
- Following up and accountability
At IVF London we are aware most people underestimate the emotional distress that may be caused by infertility, so whatever stage you’re in, make sure you are prepared. In our commitment to support you, we are giving away a Free Fertility Coaching consultation with the awarded Nurse Consultant and NLP Coach Andreia Trigo. It’s never too late to start your fertility support plan, why not start today? Book your appointment here.
About Andreia Trigo
Andreia Trigo (RN, BSc, and MSc) is the founder of inFertile Life, multi-awarded nurse consultant, fertility coach, author and TEDx speaker. Combining her fourteen-year medical experience, CBT, NLP and her own eighteen-year infertility journey, she has developed unique strategies to help people undergoing similar challenges achieve their reproductive goals. The Enhanced Fertility Programme is helping people worldwide and has been awarded Best Innovation in Business 2018 and E-Business of 2018. Check her out at www.infertile-life.com
