Hypnotherapy and Fertility: Does Hypnosis Work?
This past week, as I was explaining the use of hypnosis and hypnotherapy, I got a lot of questions about how hypnosis can possibly help with somatic issues and especially with conceiving. I realized that many people underestimate the psychological effects of somatic problems.
Even though hypnosis does not provide a physical treatment for fertility cases, it works directly with the subconscious mind to release the emotional stress that is created by the symptoms, treatments, and aftermath.
So, this week, I decided to highlight the most important contributing factors of infertility and how hypnosis can actually help you to get pregnant!
Conceiving in the real world
Many couples get excited about the idea of having a baby and starting their family. Most don’t even think about the fact that approximately 48.5 million couples are unable to have a child. Before you actually decide to have a baby and start trying, it feels like the hardest part is taking care of the baby and not actually making it!
When you are surrounded by friends who have babies in natural ways, it feels like infertility doesn’t exist, and making a baby is easy as an apple pie for everybody.
Unfortunately, about 10% of the women in the United States between the ages of 15 and 44 have difficulties getting pregnant. Many of these couples’ dreams get crushed when the doctor tells them ‘You can never get pregnant naturally’.
This is when the whole process of learning about the treatments and other ways of having a baby starts. Less than half of women under the age of 35 who use reproductive technologies are successful in becoming pregnant, and the success rate drops significantly based on a woman’s age (Lindsey & Driskill, 2013)
Hypnosis can help with improving the chances of fertility by releasing anxiety, shame and worry subconsciously.
In addition to the lower success rate, the cost of infertility treatments is intimidating for many couples, scaring them for seeking help. These costly treatments, unfortunately, cannot guarantee a successful pregnancy either.
The correlation between fertility and stress
For decades, it’s been taught that infertility is a medical condition. However, recently, it is concluded that many other factors come into play affecting the rates of infertility. For the last 10 years in America, the age of pregnancy increased and nowadays many women get pregnant between the ages of 30-40.
Smoking, alcohol, weight problems, age, hormonal changes, and stress contribute to infertility as well. Especially the emotional and psychological states of women are the major contributor to this condition.
The stress level increases for women and men after learning about infertility. Many women feel lonely, desperate, heartbroken, angry, or blamed during the process. The stress and frustration in one of the partners are easily transferred to the other, eventually creating a desperate situation for both.
Each time they undergo a treatment, there is a new disappointment and hopelessness. These emotions can easily turn into guilt, anger toward the self, or even depression.
How can hypnosis help with fertility?
One of the most important things that many couples don’t realize is when they get more stressed, they are decreasing their chances of getting pregnant gradually. Infertility can become one’s life’s most stressful event. Unfortunately, couples go through uncontrollable negative emotions without realizing the negative impact of these emotions on the conception journey.
Hypnosis is an intervention that greatly helps women to release psychological pressure and expectations about pregnancy.
Here are the 3 main areas that hypnosis can help with infertility:
Hypnosis can help to understand and accept the infertility
Hypnotherapy can help to cope with fertility treatments and their results
Hypnotherapy can help to deal with miscarriages
Mind is a goal machine!
Have you ever focused on a problem so much that you became obsessed with it and that was the only thing you were dealing with for a while? I am sure most of us experienced a situation like that. The more you focus, the more obsessed and negative you become because you constantly see negative results. It’s almost like your mind is trying to prove that whatever you do, the result will be the same.
Well, yes, your mind is trying to prove that there is no other way. Our mind is a goal machine. Whatever the goal is, the mind does anything to make this goal a reality; whether it’s something you like or not.
Many people are not aware of their mind’s capability. Unconsciously, they set their goal in a negative way. Regardless, the mind’s job is to accomplish the goal and it does everything it can to take you to your goal. The only problem is that you didn’t set this negative goal on purpose!
In infertility cases; with hearing negative information from surroundings, being in a desperate mood, and not seeing positive results for a while; moms tend to set an unconscious negative goal. For example, subconsciously, the mother can be saying to herself “I cannot have a baby!”.
With this goal in mind, the mind not only does everything it can to accomplish the goal but also tries to prove that you were right! When moms are in this vicious cycle, they cannot realize that they are feeding their stress and they feel ‘stuck’ eventually.
Positive fertility results are possible with hypnosis
Hypnosis helps mothers by getting out of the negative cycle and understanding the results of treatments rather than getting stuck in negative emotions. Hypnotic imagery is a great technique for moms to learn how to use their mind’s power to navigate their perceptions to see positive results. They learn how to set up positive beliefs for new accomplishments.
Hypnosis is also one of the most effective subconscious release techniques. During hypnosis, the subconscious mind has a chance to release negative emotions, memories, and stress. This helps mothers deal with their emotions easily and unconsciously.
In sum, hypnosis is a very effective approach to dealing with emotional stress and the psychological effects of infertility. Most of the time, couples face very intense and new emotions during fertility treatments. The negative emotions contribute to infertility as well and they make it harder for the treatments to be successful.
I believe that hypnosis is a great way for couples to see that there is always a way and chance for the ones who believe!
‘Nothing is impossible to a willing heart!’ John Heywood.