Infertility teaches you a lot about your body, your partner, your relationship, and yourself. It can even show you the darkest parts of yourself. Based on my own experience and those of other women, I have compiled some of the thoughts that creep into the shadows. If you have thought any (or all) of these, just know that you are not alone. Remember, infertility is a loss. And loss needs grief: the dark parts come with the territory.
- Sometimes I’m not just jealous, or sad, I am truly not happy for that person that is pregnant.
- I judge the crap out of everyone: they weren’t even trying to get pregnant, they are too young or too old, they will make horrible parents, they don’t deserve a child
- I can convince myself I am pregnant, no matter what, even though I know I am not.
- Sometimes I hope people’s pregnancies/labors are horrible
- Sometimes I think I did something wrong
- I resent my husband for not being able to give me a child
- I feel inadequate as a woman for not being able to do the most fundamental thing a human should be able to do
- I Sometimes I hope peoples babies are difficult babies
- My husband doesn’t really understand
- I wish there was something wrong with my husband’s sperm so that it wasn’t all my fault
- I blame my body
- I wish they would tell me definitively I can’t get pregnant so I can let go of the hope
- This is really hard on my marriage
- Maybe I am not meant to be a mother
Feel free to share any other thought you (or your "friend") have had so other women know its ok to feel t hat way sometimes too.
Re: The dark thoughts no one wants to admit to having
Me: 34, DH: 38 ~ TTC since 2014
IUI #1-3 (Nov 2015, Feb 2016, May 2016) = BFNs
IVF ER (July 2016) = 7 PGS normal embryos
FET #1 (Sept 2016) = BFP! DD born 5/30/17
FET #2 (April 2019) = BFN
FET #3 (July 2019) = BFP! DS born 3/27/20
----trigger warning----
Married 11 years, DD born 9/2009, MC 1/2013
TTC #2 since 2014, dx: unexplained annovulation,
2 cycles of Clomid, MC 1/2016, BFP June 4
When I have really bad days I give myself permission to do what I need to do to get through the day - cry, eat my feelings, think all the mean thoughts - but after that I tell myself that the important thing is to pick up and keep going the next day. Bitterness can eat us alive if we aren't careful to keep these feelings in check. I don't think the answer is pretending we don't have these feelings at all. I don't think we can move past it - we have to work through it and that means letting ourselves feel what we feel - even the "ugly, dark" feelings.
Thanks for sharing.
BFP1 12/24/14 - EDD 09/07/15 (D/C 8w1d)
BFP2 6/12/15 - EDD 2/22/16 (D/C 10w3d)
———
Diagnoses and Treatments
PCOS (myo-inositol, excercize)
Indeterminant levels of APS IgM antibodies (baby aspirin)
Sub-septate uterus (hysteroscopic septoplasty 12/18/15)
———
BFP3 05/02/16 EDD 01/09/17 DS born 01/05/17
BFP4 01/28/19 EDD 10/?/19 🤞🙏
/loss mentioned/
TTC#1 July 2014
dx: MFI (morphology)
IUI #1 w/Clomid + Ovidrel Sept. 2015 ~ BFN
IUI #2 w/Clomid + Ovidrel Halloween 2015 ~ BFN
IUI #3 w/Clomid + Ovidrel Thanksgiving 2015 ~ BFP!!
hb 146 bpm at 7w5d
1/28/16 ~ began to say goodbye to our beautiful baby at 11w
d&c, followed by cytotec
TTCAL April 2016
IUI #4 w/Clomid + Ovidrel Apr. 2016 ~ BFN
IUI #5 w/Clomid + Ovidrel ~ CP
IUI#6 w/Clomid + Ovidrel ~ BFN
Thank you. Thank you for sharing this!!
My Ovulation Chart
No Folic acid/pharmaceuticals/supplements (too many to list- private message me if interested), IVIL infusion
*edited for grammar mistake
I wonder why God does not hear my cries and prayers all the time, thats hard. I'm working on this one currently, working on accepting His timing in my life.
Above all I worry that I'll never be a mommy and that guts me, I cant and wont accept that.
Im glad someone put it out there loke this, so we can all see that these thoughts happens, and we are not alone when we have them:) Good to know I'm not just a mean B***h lol.
Married the love of my life 9-1-13
TTC for 18 Months
Unexplained Infertility (suspected insulin resistance)
I want to save this lol. I told my husband and my best friend that I totally understand why people steal babies now
And when I was in school and a girl announced her pregnancy I went into the break room and cried my eyes out, and I thought to myself that it wasn't fair, and she would be a horrible mother while I would be a great one.
On the bright side (is there a bright side?) this is a normal thing. I see a therapist who went through the whole infertility thing eventually having kids via IVF, and he shared with me and my DH some of the things his wife went through during the process. It helps to realize that this is part of the process. Kind of. You know what I mean.
On a similar note, are there places that anyone avoids? When DH and I go to Walmart I will go out of my way to avoid the baby section. He, thankfully, indulges me.
TTC since 2011