Getting an infertility diagnosis can be heartbreaking and life-changing. Something you always thought would just fall in line with your life is now lingering in the very far distance and seems it will never happen. It leaves you feeling frustrated, confused, angry, and an array of other mixed emotions, and it always feels like nobody understands. This is why it’s so important to get the support you need.
Support during infertility can show itself in a variety of ways. It can be as simple as an anonymous outlet where you can share your story and concerns or it can mean meeting with a trained professional to discuss your feelings each week. No two people are the same and the type of support you need may not be the same as someone else you know going through a similar situation and that’s okay. Some of us need support to work through the emotions, while others need support to find the strength to go through treatment. Figuring out what support we need is also important and can often be a cause of the frustration that we feel.
Finding support resources shouldn’t be difficult when you’re already going through something tough. Hopefully, you can find support from your spouse or a close friend or relative. Having someone to talk to is a great way to start building your support network, but you should always have someone that also understands what you are going through as well. There are vast groups of support online, especially on social media. For me, my first true support outside of my husband was the community on Instagram. They became a great resource and support for me and helped me to feel comfortable in my infertility diagnosis.
The RE that we met with was very quick to jump to IVF and honestly looking back three years later I understand why, but the one thing doctors aren’t always good at is offering the emotional support that you need when hearing this information. It’s not easy going from having sex and hoping for those two lines to appear to being told that you now have to spend thousands of dollars and subject yourself to some serious procedures and medication regimens and on top of that many of us feel that we are now broken and need to be ‘fixed’.
Finding support early on is also essential to making for a better experience on your journey. As an avid advocate for the fertility community, I am trying to extend the opportunities for support that are available, and I want to make them easy to find. This is one reason behind our recently created local support groups and we’ll even be expanding to phone sessions in the future to include people across the country as well. Feel free to check out our support page to find out more about what support is available to you or you can also reach out to us at MyPineappleSquad@gmail.com and we can help you figure out a support network that fits your personal needs.