By Whitney Evans, Deseret News
Mara Kofoed was not always hopeful about having kids. When she first started trying for children in 2004, and learned that she had fertility issues, her life seemed full of fear and anxiety. She worried she’d never have children.
Kofoed is one of the 7.4 percent — 2.1 million — of married women aged 15-44 who are infertile, according to the Center for Disease Control. Infertility is defined as trying for pregnancy for 12 consecutive months without success. The study also shows 7.3 million women in this age bracket, or 11.8 percent, struggle with impaired fecundity, or the diminished ability to have children. While there are multiple medical options and remedies for women and men struggling with infertility, there is also a nationwide push toward often neglected emotional and spiritual treatments.
Become Informed
Effective treatments vary for intertility, said Corey Whelan, program director for The American Fertility Association. Because of this, she said, couples who have not been able to have children should become informed about their specific condition and find a specialist to meet their needs.
“It’s very, very important to tell yourself the truth and find out what works,” Whelan said. “Don’t sit in the anxiety for too long. The emotional toll for infertility is really extreme.”
Whelan has seen how lack of education and the perpetuation of inaccurate facts can close doors for women trying to have children. For instance, Whelan said she has known of many women who assume they can prolong their fertility with a healthy lifestyle. While the converse is true — obesity and unhealthy lifestyles will hurt someone’s chance for pregnancy ?— healthy habits will not lengthen the biological clock. Since 20 percent of women have their first child after the age of 35, according to the CDC’s National Survey of Family Growth, Whelen said it is important for them to realize their decreased chances of impregnation, even in spite of good health. Whelan also said women who are older than 35 should consult a specialist after six months of unsuccessfully trying for pregnancy.
Kofoed became educated fairly early after discovering her infertility and has tried several types of infertility treatments, from medical — in vitro fertilization (IVF), intrauterine insemination (IUI) and acupuncture — to holistic — Chinese herbal teas, body talk ad organis, gluten- and dairy-free diets.
Regardless of the treatment they seek, Danny Kofoed, who married Mara in 2010, suggests women and men seek emotional and spiritual healing in addition to the medical. He said often those who are struggling with infertility feel as if they deserve to feel miserable and for whatever reason are hesitant to seek out emotional and spiritual healing. However, the Kofoeds have realized bodies will respond negatively to spiritual and emotional trauma, and spiritual and emotional trauma will, turn, negatively affect the body.
Kristin Hodson began the Utah-based Healing Group, where women can go to receive education and therapy.
“Oftentimes people come to us and they feel they get validation,” Hodson said. “They come feeling like they are crazy because they are not told about the stress and the psychological impact and they walk away feeling validated in the amount of stress and anxiety they feel.”
People define themselves through infertility, but that is not all there is to a person.
“Infertility may be a part of you but it’s not all of you,” Hodson said.
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