Strategies to Cope During Fertility Treatments

Fertility treatments can be very stressful, and lead to anxiety and depression. In this interview, Abby Mercado interviews Dr. Ali Domar, a world expert in reproductive psychology.

Interview between Dr. Ali Domar and Abby Mercado

Dr. Ali Domar has 34 years of experience as a reproductive psychologist, has written six books on the topic and is the creator of the Mind Body Program for Infertility. Below, Dr. Domar is interviewed by Best Shot’s Co-Founder & CEO, Abby Mercado. Best Shot is a fertility-focused software company that acts as the connective tissue between the provider and the pharmacy, with the patient’s body & mind at its core. In the transcribed interview, Dr. Domar and Abby discuss access to mental health resources, strategies to cope during fertility treatments and their hopes for the future of the fertility industry.

Ali, you have a lot of experience working with fertility patients during treatments. Research shows that after beginning their journey with a fertility clinic, 56 percent of patients report depression and 76 percent report anxiety. From your vantage point, what is a patient’s experience with infertility like, and how does that experience affect their mental state?

Infertility treatment is wonderful because it can lead to babies, and most of them are pretty cute. But infertility treatment can also be very stressful. We published a paper years ago that said that women with infertility had the same level of anxiety, and depression, as a woman with cancer or heart disease. Going through treatment can be very, very challenging.

Women with infertility had the same level of anxiety, and depression, as a woman with cancer or heart disease.

One area I have been researching is why people drop out of treatment. Studies show that the number one reason people drop out of treatment is cost. If patients don’t have insurance, if they don’t have the financial resources, then they’re going to drop out because of the cost, but the number two reason is the emotional burden of treatment. So if you think that through, a patient goes through a cycle and it doesn’t work and because they have insurance, that patient could do three or more cycles but they’re so stressed by that first cycle that they stop treatment, which means they probably won’t have a baby. And that absolutely breaks my heart that people drop out of treatment just because they’re so stressed, because there are evidence-based ways to address that stress.

Want to learn more? Read the full article on Natalist.com