Specialties — Family Planning and Infertility

Family planning is a personal, private process. You may be a single woman, in a domestic partnership or perhaps married, trying to get pregnant so that you can raise a child and create a family. If you're not successful in getting pregnant, you might feel like a passenger on an emotional roller coaster. This experience may also feel isolating and that no one can really understand what you are going through.

Infertility can flood you with a full range of emotions, often including:

depression ~ anxiety ~ frustration ~ stress ~ guilt ~ inadequacy ~ grief ~ jealousy

If you are already involved with the medical system, you may be going through tests, monitoring your body, eating healthy, taking injections - all the while continuing in your attempts to get pregnant only to find that in your next cycle, you or your partner menstruates.

You may feel betrayed by your body, angry at your partner or perhaps at the world, and wonder —"where do I go from here?"

On the infertility journey, it is important to develop strong coping skills. Many men, women and couples endure infertility by creating strategies for good self care and care for their partner. Coping skills may include learning how to:

• manage the stress of infertility and the medical system
  
• understand and support your partner
  
• take care of yourself when "everyone else is getting pregnant"
  
• make friends with your body again
  
• explore other alternatives to childbirth such as adopting or living child-free

There are many ways to create a fulfilling life. When it comes to family planning, you may do this by having a child, either naturally or through adoption, or choosing to live child-free.

Carolynn works with Pressman and Associates, Voorhees, NJ, performing assessments and counseling for patients seeking third-party reproduction. Carolynn also provides counseling for anyone seeking emotional support with infertility or family planningthrough LIVE FULLY Counseling, in Cherry Hill, NJ.