Some of our clients that struggle with infertility have been talking a lot about how challenging things have been since their fertility treatments have been suspended. That is why for this week’s edition of Food for Thought we picked out this research article by Jennifer L. Gordon and Ashley A. Balsom that talks about the psychological impact of the fertility treatment suspensions on individuals struggling with fertility. We think they made some very interesting observations. Check out the article below.
The last 18 months have been challenging in many ways; financially, emotionally, socially, and of course psychologically. It’s worth a conversation to reflect on how it has made already challenging things even more challenging, like for women struggling with infertility.
Over the course of the pandemic we’ve worked with many women who have been affected by these implications and think this article brings a lot of these issues to light.
Indeed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic many in-person fertility treatments were suspended all across the U.S. and Canada. Unsurprisingly, this news left many couples devastated. A recent study conducted by Jennifer L. Gordon and Ashley A. Balsom sought to examine the mental health impact of fertility treatment suspensions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from their study found that these suspensions have had a considerable negative impact on women’s mental health. The study also found that factors such as: low levels of avoidance, access to high-quality social support, low defensive pessimism and greater infertility acceptance were all protective factors against the negative effects of the treatment’s suspensions on mental health.
We hope that reading this article will help those going through it feel less alone as well as gain some perspective and tools on how to better manage this incredibly challenging journey. Click on the link below to access the full study conducted by Jennifer L. Gordon and Ashley A. Balsom.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0239253