Stress and IVF

Most patients going through IVF treatment are fed up of hearing the advice that they should just relax and not get stressed out.

Everyone knows that stress is not good for you , and no one chooses to be stressed, but telling people to relax is hardly helpful. After all, how do you implement advice like that? Stress is a completely normal human psychological response – especially when you are going through an expensive  treatment like IVF, where the outcome is so uncertain.

I'm a strong believer in the fact that it's not stress which affects fertility - it's the infertility which causes stress . I’m sure if I were doing IVF, I would be as stressed out as my patients !

Giving unhelpful advice and telling infertile couples to “relax” actually just makes a bad problem even worse. It adds to the “ blaming the victim “ syndrome, the poor patient ends up feeling she's not getting pregnant because she is too stressed out.

A kinder and more balanced approach is to say, "Yes, I can completely understand why you're stressed, and here are some techniques I have used in order to manage my personal stress in my own life - such as mindfulness, yoga and meditation."

Need help in getting pregnant ? Please send me your medical details by filling in the form at www.drmalpani.com/free-second-opinion so that I can guide you !