Infertility and the Holidays

Dr. Carolyn Kubik, Medical Director

I made it through Thanksgiving and I'm getting ready for the end of the year holidays. This is usually a happy time full of excitement and preparation, but also lots of stress, especially for the couples that I see in the RHS office. Everybody knows that holidays are especially stressful for couples who are experiencing infertility - overly helpful relatives, exposure to friends and relatives with children or babies on the way, the list goes on. I wish I had a solution with how to deal with the extra added stress that infertile couples experience at the holidays, but as with most things, there is no effective remedy that works for everybody. So, instead, I would like to offer some words of encouragement.

The pictures of the babies and children that we post on our walls at this time of year come from couples that were in your situation not that long ago. Not all the babies are the result of IVF - happily, some of them come along all on their own - Mother Nature's way of reminding us of who is in control. Others have been adopted by loving parents - parents for whom medical science hasn't found an effective remedy to overcome the barrier to conception. The other babies are the result of a variety of treatments that are provided in our offices. We at RHS know that, unfortunately, our treatments will not work for everyone, but we are thrilled that so many of our patients will be successful. I hope that rather than only feeling sad at being reminded of the difficulty that you are having by seeing the pictures, you might also feel a little bit encouraged that everybody at RHS will do everything we can do to make your dream of having a baby come true.