Saff Mitten Therapy Resources | IVF, Infertility & Miscarriage

Therapy Blog: Miscarriage, Infertility, Fertility Challenges & Women’s Emotional Wellbeing

Welcome to my therapy blog, where I share articles on the specialist areas I work with - miscarriage, infertility and fertility challenges - as well as broader topics related to women’s emotional wellbeing, including anxiety, low mood, self‑esteem and life transitions.

I add new posts regularly, so feel free to check back. If you’re thinking about starting therapy or have any questions, I’m always happy to hear from you.

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Infertility and Fertility Challenges
Miscarriage

Pregnancy After Infertility: Making Sense of Guilt and Mixed Emotions

Pregnancy after infertility may bring guilt and mixed emotions alongside happiness. This article explores these conflicting emotions, why they can arise, and how therapy can help you embrace your pregnancy while honouring everything you have been through to get here.

When an IVF Cycle Ends Before Embryo Transfer

When an IVF cycle ends before embryo transfer, the grief can be profound, yet easily overlooked. This article explores the loss, comparison and self-blame women may experience, and how IVF therapy can offer understanding and support when a cycle ends this way.

Why Finding It Hard to Conceive a Second Child Can Feel So Painful

Struggling to conceive a second child can bring unexpected grief, shock, and sometimes self-blame. This article explores the complicated mix of feelings that arise when facing secondary infertility, and explains how therapy can help you process what you are grappling with, and support you through this.

The Anger and Rage of IVF and Infertility

Infertility and IVF can evoke intense anger and rage at the unfairness of it all. This article explores why these angry feelings can be frightening, how they may impact your everyday life, and how therapy can help you acknowledge and express them in safe, manageable ways.

Ending My Infertility and IVF Journey Without Becoming a Mother

Learn about my experience of ending my journey through infertility and IVF without becoming a mother, confronting grief, shame, a loss of identity, and discovering a meaningful life beyond infertility. I also share how this experience shaped my work supporting other women with these issues and gave me a new sense of purpose.

Unsure Whether to Continue IVF? Navigating an Impossible Decision

Unsure whether to continue IVF? Explore why this feels like such an impossible dilemma, how therapy can help you work out what feels right, and why questioning whether to keep going does not mean you have failed or given up.

Pregnancy After IVF: Why It Doesn’t Always Feel Like Leaving Infertility Behind

Pregnancy after IVF can bring joy, relief and gratitude, but it doesn't always feel as though infertility has been left behind. This article explores why many women can feel caught between infertility and motherhood, helping to make sense of an experience that is rarely discussed.

Why Friends Stop Showing Up For You During IVF

Support from friends can sometimes fade during IVF, making you feel even more isolated and alone. This article explores why this can happen, helping to make sense of an experience that many women find deeply painful and confusing.

Why Embryo Loss Can Feel Like A Profound Grief

Embryo loss during IVF can bring a profound grief that is often misunderstood. This article explores why attachment to embryos develops, why their loss can feel so devastating, and why these experiences deserve understanding, compassion and permission to be mourned.

Why the Word ‘Miscarriage’ Doesn’t Capture the Reality of Pregnancy Loss

The language we use after pregnancy loss is never just about words. This article explores why there is no single "right" way to describe miscarriage, and why respecting the language women choose to describe their experiences is important.

Pregnancy Envy During Infertility: The Emotion Nobody Wants to Admit

Pregnancy envy is an emotion many women experience during infertility. This article explores why it happens, why it often feels so shameful, and the emotional cost of keeping those feelings hidden.

Living in a Constant State of Waiting: How IVF and Infertility Can Change You

Living in a constant state of waiting is one of the hardest parts of IVF and infertility. This article explores how prolonged uncertainty can gradually affect your sense of self, your relationships and your connection with your own life.

The Loneliness of IVF that Nobody Prepares You For

Loneliness is one of the hidden emotional realities of IVF. This article explores why infertility can feel so isolating, even when you have supportive people around you, and why feeling truly understood can make such a difference.

It’s OK Not to Feel Happy for Your Friend When they Announce their Pregnancy

Infertility and IVF can make pregnancy announcements from friends or colleagues difficult. Women rarely admit they don’t feel happy for others, but this is actually a common internal reaction and nothing to be ashamed about.

Therapy for IVF Can Be Useful Before Treatment Begins

When you are going through IVF you don't have to wait until you are struggling before you seek therapy. It is of benefit then, absolutely. But it can also be a helpful tool from the outset - even before you choose a clinic or decide on what treatment to have.

The Hardest Part of IVF is Often The Emotional Impact

People often expect the medical side of IVF to be the hardest part. But for many women it's the emotional impact that comes as the biggest surprise. This article explores the uncertainty, hope, disappointment and loneliness that can make IVF feel so much harder than expected.

Recurrent Miscarriage: The Trauma of Repeated Loss

Recurrent miscarriage is an especially painful and difficult experience. Miscarriage is always hard, but when you experience one miscarriage after another it can be truly devastating. This article looks at the emotional and psychological impact of being in this position, and how therapy can help you process and deal with it.

When The Fertility Journey Shrinks Your Life

This article explores how the fertility journey and IVF can cause your world to shrink - until the process feels like all you have left. It looks at the emotional toll from this, and how therapy can help you gently reclaim a sense of self.

Infertility and IVF Can Cause Feelings of Resentment Towards Your Partner

One of the things that is rarely discussed is the resentment that can build toward your partner during fertility struggles and infertility. This piece explores why these feelings arise, why they don’t make you a bad partner, and how individual therapy can offer a safe place to process them and protect your relationship.

Why IVF and Infertility Can Affect Your Friendships

This article explores how fertility struggles and IVF can impact your friendships, often in painful and unexpected ways. It looks at the emotional impact of this, the isolation that follows, and why specialist support from a therapist who has been there herself, might be what you need to feel properly supported at this time.

Donor Eggs and Sperm in IVF: Understanding the Emotional Impact and How Therapy Can Help

An honest look at the emotional impact of using donor eggs or sperm in IVF. This article explores the fears, sense of grief and loss, and issues about identity that can arise for each partner - and how therapy offers support through the decision‑making process.

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