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Saff Mitten: We Need to Build Greater Awareness of Infertility and the Impact Fertility Journeys Have on People

Saff Mitten/saffmittentherapy.co.uk

Nov 2, 2026, 15:44

Saff Mitten: We Need to Build Greater Awareness of Infertility and the Impact Fertility Journeys Have on People

Saff Mitten, Counsellor and Psychotherapist at Saff Mitten Counselling and Psychotherapy, shared on LinkedIn:

“It is Fertility Awareness Week in the UK, and this week is very important because we need to build greater awareness of infertility and the impact fertility journeys have on people.

There is such a lack of awareness of how many people actually face fertility issues, and importantly, how much of a profound impact it has on them. It is the most challenging and difficult thing a lot of people will go through in their lives – whether they end up having a child or not.

Infertility and all that it entails – including fertility treatment like IVF – is extremely difficult on an emotional and psychological level. It can impact almost every aspect of your life: how you see yourself, your body, your future, and your sense of purpose in life.

For a lot of people it is something that affects them on an identity level because becoming a parent is something they always just expected would be a part of their story and who they are. But now suddenly, without warning, this is thrown into question. Navigating this uncertainty can feel unbearable.

I have shared my own infertility story to varying degrees on here, and I will continue to talk about it, because we need to normalise discussing these experiences, and I know it helps other people going through it feel less alone.

I had multiple rounds of IVF with my own eggs, followed by numerous rounds of donor egg IVF. I had a number of miscarriages, including missed miscarriages, where I had to go through the experience of hearing those dreaded words at a scan that make your world crumble: ‘I’m sorry, there is no heartbeat’.

Infertility and IVF, and the loss that accompanied it, changed me as a person. There were times I was so depressed I was unable to even get out of bed. I suffered from PTSD from one of the experiences I had involving one of my miscarriages. Overall, it was the most difficult thing I have been through in my life, and it will always stay with me on some level.

What made it even harder, is that it was the loneliest, most isolating thing I have ever been through. Because people who have not been through it don’t understand. And often people who have stay quiet, so you don’t necessarily know there are other people in your wider circle who have experienced it.

For all these reasons, this is why Fertility Awareness Week matters so much. As a society, we need to recognise how profoundly painful and difficult infertility is, how many people are affected by it (1 in 6 of us), and how much those going through it need to feel supported and have it recognised as one of the most difficult things that life can throw at us.

Every journey and every story does matter.

Image accompanying this post courtesy of The Fertility Alliance.”

Saff Mitten: We Need to Build Greater Awareness of Infertility and the Impact Fertility Journeys Have on People