As someone who spent two full years trying to conceive a third child via in vitro fertilization (IVF), I’ll be the first person to admit that I never thought secondary infertility would happen to me. I conceived my 5-year-old twins during my second frozen embryo transfer cycle, with 9 embryos left in the freezer. Since IVF had worked for us before, I didn’t think we would have unexpected challenges when we started trying for another baby. I couldn’t have been more wrong.    Something else I was wrong about…that secondary infertility couldn’t be nearly as...

Getting pregnant with our son was easy, so we thought number two would be a piece of cake. But this time, we weren’t as lucky. Secondary infertility leaves many couples with unanswered questions and no reason why it’s not working for them now.  What is secondary infertility? Couples experience secondary infertility when they cannot get pregnant or carry a baby to term after being pregnant or have no issues with their previous pregnancy.  “Secondary infertility is quite common,” says OB/GYN Dr. Staci Tanouye. It affects 8-12% of couples across the globe, which is about 4...

If you dealt with infertility before conceiving and delivering a baby, it’s only natural to hope you may be more fertile postpartum. After all, you did it! You had a child despite the odds. But even if you didn’t have difficulty getting pregnant the first time around, there are articles out there that do feed into the idea that women can undergo a “fertility reset” after giving birth.   The more you Google postpartum fertility, however, the more overwhelmed you may get, as the evidence online can be contradictory and far from straightforward. Don't worry; we’re...

Whether you love them or hate them (or love to hate them), there’s one thing that’s undeniable: The Kardashians keep it all the way real. Sometimes that’s a really wonderful thing, especially when they bring awareness to pregnancy complications (see: Kim Kardashian’s terrifying experience with preeclampsia) or open up about fertility preservation, as Khloé Kardashian did.  Most recently, the eldest Kardashian sister provided an update on her IVF journey, which she’s been candid about for months. In doing so, she’s illuminating elements of the experience we don’t often see.  Kourtney Kardashian has been doing this throughout...

Infertility isn’t limited to a person’s first pregnancy. About 14% of individuals struggle with getting pregnant or bringing a pregnancy to full term after already having had one pregnancy or birth, according to the CDC.  For couples who have a more difficult time trying to get pregnant the second time around, secondary infertility carries some equally difficult — but different — emotions to primary infertility (infertility associated with a first-time pregnancy). The Emotional Toll of Secondary Infertility  Feelings like guilt and loneliness can make the struggle to have another baby its own sort of challenge....

  Secondary infertility is something a couple never expects to be googling when trying to conceive after an easy prior conception and pregnancy. I certainly never thought that secondary infertility would happen to me, but it was and will always be a part of our family’s story.  In 2019, my daughter had just turned one and we started to try to conceive our second child. Since my daughter had been conceived easily and I had a relatively uneventful pregnancy with her, we fully expected that everything would happen just the same as it did before....

  I am a mother to a daughter. This fact still brings me shock and awe. There is rarely a moment that the reality of how difficult it was for us to have our daughter isn’t with me. I’ve said praises under my breath for her at all hours of the day—so often that it seems they are engrained in my subconscious. I am so aware of the miracle of my daughter that it sometimes makes me physically ill—I don’t know what to do with the moments of overwhelming gratitude, especially when they connect and...

  The deep desire to have a baby and being unable to conceive naturally once took over my entire life. The impact of infertility is so powerful. It has the ability to throw you into a dark hole and alienate you from your family and friends. For me, it made me feel like a failure and utterly powerless, like I had completely lost control over my life. When I sit back and reflect on it all, my struggle with infertility has fundamentally changed who I am as a person. It truly made me realize what...

  Battling infertility can lead to self-hate, self-shaming, and a muddled body image if you let it. After years of failed cycles, there were times when I would look at myself in the mirror and become completely disgusted with the shell of a body I was trapped in. I was so angry; why could she not just do what she was supposed to do and what so many other women’s bodies could do? I had so much animosity built up because my body had failed me month after month and year after year. Our relationship...

  I never thought I would deal with infertility. My earliest memories are of me playing with my dolls and dreaming of the day when I would become a mother. In 2009, my dream of becoming a mom was realized, but what followed was more of a nightmare. On November 4, I gave birth to my oldest daughter and only biological child. I went into my birth believing that simply hiring a midwife and watching a few documentaries was enough to prepare for childbirth, but I quickly found out that I was mistaken.  After spending 11 hours...