No matter which way you look at it, a failed IVF cycle can be tough.
The hormones can send you on an emotional and physical rollercoaster.
Treatment can cause pain and discomfort and are often physically exhausting.
The hopes, expectations, and grief can leave you feeling like you can’t keep going with the whole process.
If the first round of IVF is a marathon of the mind, body, and spirit. Multiple rounds of IVF are an ultra-marathon. It can take psychological resilience, physical energy, and courage to achieve the dream of a viable pregnancy.
The Geelong Psychologists at Happy Minds Psychology are on the support team of many women and couples going through their IVF journey. We know the ups and downs it causes, and the emotional toll people can pay.
Here are some of the common topics we address with our clients going through IVF.
Dealing with feelings of failure in IVF
When an IVF cycle fails, hopes and dreams can come crashing down. We might experience sadness, feelings of blame and failure. You might feel like you have done something wrong, your body has failed, or that someone or something must have caused it. These feelings – while common – can zap your positivity and make it harder to keep going. It’s important that you remember an IVF cycle failure doesn’t make the possibility of IVF helping you to achieve a pregnancy hopeless. But it does sting, so getting extra support is important.
Dealing with the grief and loss in failed IVF cycles
Read more about coping with IVF failure.
Many women and couples experience the heaviness of grief and loss when experiencing a failed IVF cycle. With each loss, the feelings of sadness can become deeper and leave you feeling despondent and hopeless. It’s important to remember that there are lots of things we may be grieving for if we are experiencing infertility. Sometimes, it can be about the lack of trust in our body, our attachment to the embryo or just the pain and sadness the baby-shaped hole leaves in our life. There are many other things that might cause us to need space to grieve.
Grief counselling can be a great support to helping you navigate these feelings and get to the other side of them.
Losing hope after multiple failed cycles
When you experience multiple failed IVF cycles, it can feel like each one takes a piece of your hope away with it. Positivity and perseverance can begin to dwindle as you lose faith in the process and become more and more exhausted as time goes on. Whilst you may be losing hope, this is the perfect time to bring on some extra support to help you make decisions and increase your resiliency for the road ahead.
Dealing with mental health during IVF
A lot of women and couples enter their IVF journeys not fully aware of the demand on their mental health along the way. You’re dedicating your body to the cause, placing your hopes and wishes in the hands of your IVF team. You’re investing your money into the process and you’re desperate for it to pay off.
While you’re fighting your way through the onslaught of emotions that comes with the IVF process, your mental health might be struggling to maintain such a heavy load.
Infertility counselling and IVF counselling services are designed to take some of that load off and nurture your mental health through what is one of the most taxing life events for most people.
Building your support team
Happy Minds Psychology in Geelong and the Bellarine are your very own support team for your IVF marathon. We’re here to care for your mental health, help you dig deep to find the strength and resilience you’re capable of, encouraging your rest and recovery, and holding space for the highs and the lows.
To make your appointment with Happy Minds Psychology for IVF support, call us on 03 5292 8833 or email us on [email protected].
Check out Monash IVF’s blogs regarding IVF failure here.