I hear over and over and over “relax” “I bet it’s stress” etc about infertility and trying to get pregnant. I get it. When you hear “we’ve been trying for 5 years…” you think “damn! Focusing on making something happen for that long?!? Just chill and it’ll happen!!” By now, I hope you have realized that 1) it’s not that simple 2) it’s not always a constant focus.
Austin and I are Garmin fans. Our watches have tons features and data points they collect. One of these is “stress level”. Throughout the day, there are “relax reminders” of the number is too high. Here’s how they figure this out…
So, I have screenshot my stress data and posted below. We have been trying since September 2018. We started meds to help May 2019. We started seeing a specialist October 2019. To give you some reference points. I included data from when Garmin added this data point. These are months at a glance.
As you can see (I hope🤣), my stress levels have stayed pretty consistent from the beginning and through the years. There are definitely times of high stress, but I hope this keeps you from telling people struggling with infertility that stress is the cause and a factor. It’s not helpful and it’s frustrating. With all of the emotions and hormones of fertility treatment, hearing this is infuriating. If you’re lucky, the response will be a smile and nod, but if you catch her during an “idgaf day”, you deserve whatever is coming, especially after reading this. Yes, stress affects your body in many ways. I am an advocate for teaching about that. However, when going through infertility, you are doing everything you can to “fix” your body. On behalf of all infertility warriors, IT IS NOT BECAUSE OF STRESS!!
Ryan’s Ramblings 