Why the emotional side of infertility can be the missing link, by Karenna Wood

We are delighted to introduce you to Karenna Wood.

Karenna is a passionate advocate for more emotional support during infertility and is on a mission to help thousands of women use mind-body tools to make the everyday experience of infertility a little better and to maximise their chances of getting pregnant.  

“We all know that infertility is an incredibly emotional experience to go through, but what many of us don’t know is that our emotions can also be the key to unlock our fertility.”

‘Just relax’

‘Go on holiday – it will happen.’

‘Start trying for adoption and you’ll get pregnant’

So we all hate statements like this, they completely undermine and gloss over the huge emotional rollercoaster of infertility.

They also misrepresent the role that emotions can play in our natural fertility and health. Of course, there will be some people who got pregnant on holiday, whilst taking a break or whilst starting the adoption process but that’s not the journey for many. But how about if we could extract the one common thread that runs through them all and make it work for our fertility journeys instead?

For some, emotions and changing our emotions can be the missing link in their fertility journeys. For others, it’s a small part that can play a big difference in the everyday experience of infertility and excitingly the outcome.

The common thread through these insensitive, unhelpful comments is that they are suggesting you relax or change your current thinking. However, this isn’t just about taking a bubble bath and bamm BFP – this is much bigger than that and it’s called Mind-Body Medicine.

A mind & body approach to infertility

Most western medicine treats infertility from the neck down. Chinese medicine and an eastern philosophy is about treating the whole person, holistically. Mind and Body. This is why acupuncture and chinese medicine has become synonymous with fertility – because this holistic approach creates results.

Basically our mind drives everything in our body and it’s a complex system in which our emotions play a key role – our thoughts can directly impact our bodies. If you think about your favourite yummy snack (Go on, think about it!), it’s likely your mouth will start producing more saliva. As simple as that exercise is, it helps us to realise that how we’re thinking and feeling can quickly and directly make changes in our bodies.

We can see this when we think about how stress impacts our bodies too. We know that stress and infertility go hand-in-hand – not only does the process create a whole load of stress but we also clinical trials show that stress impacts fertility and IVF success rates too. It’s a two-way street.

Our stress and reproductive hormones are managed in the same place in our brain so bounce off each other and making changes here can dramatically improve your natural fertility.

The exciting news for couples TTC

Stress as horrible as it is, is something we can work on. It’s not easy but with deep relaxation techniques, mindset tools and visualisation – we can make real change and there are plenty of women out there with babes in arms to prove it and the research is catching up.

Many studies have shown that when stress is reduced or negative emotions are changed to be more positive, that the chances of conceiving are much higher, in some studies by as much as double. The chances of conceiving naturally are much higher too.

One study from Harvard University showed 55% of women getting pregnant following a mind-body program, versus 20% who didn’t, and 76% of them got pregnant naturally within 12 months. On average these women had been trying to conceive for around 3 years and had already tried medical treatments such as IUI and IVF.

Learn more about this in our quick video

Where to start with mind-body tools for fertility

Mind-body tools are active relaxation and cognitive tools to help you elicit your body’s natural relaxation response, help you change your thinking to be more positive and using visualisation to embed those changes in your mind.

A great place to start is specific fertility meditations or visualisations. These are deeply relaxing guided visualisations that help you switch off from your current thoughts and optimise the mind-body connection.

You can download free fertility meditations as well as mind-body workbooks, guest expert interviews and much more in the Your Fertility Toolbox

This free, members area of Your Fertility Hub.com is created specifically to help reduce the negative impact of infertility and help you harness the power of your mind to supercharge your fertility. Join today for instant access to all this and our secret support community of women all over the world who are taking charge of their fertility mindset and fertility journeys.”

Karenna Wood is an international fertility coach and founder of Your Fertility Hub.com

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