Fertility in young people - inFertile Life
Whilst most under 18s are living normal lives, going to school, spending time with friends, listening to music and worrying about things that later in life are not significant, there is a small percentage of children and teenagers having to face the harsh diagnosis of infertility this may be the case for several reasons:
All of the above are already hard diagnosis by themselves. When we add an associated infertility to it, the suffering can be unbearable.
At a young age, we are still developing our identity, who we want to be.
We are developing our relationship with ourselves and with others.
We are establishing the standards of what we accept to ourselves.
Feeling we are different and feeling uncertain about one’s reproductive future when we don’t have a strong identity yet is very challenging. To feel that an option we hadn’t reflected about, or that is not in our immediate plans, has been taken away from us is to difficult to cope with.
Family and friends are a great support network. Ways they can help include:
The clinical team, including doctors, nurses, counsellors, and coaches can help in a different way:
Providing this kind of support is crucial to help young people develop the necessary coping mechanisms that allow him/her to make sense of what’s happening, create perspective, find meaning and go on to live a meaningful life.
Andreia Trigo
Fertility NLP Coach and Nurse Specialist