Therapy for Reproductive Trauma

In Unsung Lullabies: Understanding and Coping with Infertility (2005), authors Janet Jaffe, David Diamond, and Martha Diamond define trauma as follows:

“Often unrecognized as such, infertility truly is a trauma. A trauma is an event or feeling that goes beyond the range of usual human experience and is overwhelming either physically, emotionally, or both. It typically involves a threat to your physical integrity or that of a loved one. It may be the result of a single devastating event or a series of events that gradually build up and overwhelm you. As part of the mind’s attempt to master the catastrophic overload, the events may be re-experienced in flashbacks, which can be triggered by anything reminiscent of the original events. Sometimes a general hypersensitivity and irritability occurs, alternating paradoxically with a sense of numbness and withdrawal. A traumatized person feels anxious, depressed, and has difficulty concentrating.

What makes the experience of infertility a trauma? The diagnosis of infertility, and the medical interventions often needed to treat it, represent a threat to our physical integrity, our sense of being healthy and whole. One of the most fundamental aspects of our physical selves is our reproductive capability. When that does not function properly, we doubt everything else. Infertility is a trauma because if attacks both the physical and emotional sense of self, it presents us with multiple, complicated losses, it affects our most important relationships, and it shifts our sense of belonging in the world” (p.5).