On Fertile Ground

Relief for Infertility Patients

by Helen Adrienne, L.C.S.W.

Nature Loves the Truth

The chaos and disruption of infertility is an opportunity to clarify how you respond emotionally. Read More

Gain From the Pain

Find the bless in the infertility mess. Learn to grow from this challenge. Read More

Ten Commandments for Dealing with Infertility

This is a sound bite world. But once digested, the advice in this brand new book, Ten Commandments for Couples for Every Aspect of Your Relationship Journey, will enrich your primary relationships. Read More

The Concept of Stress Revisited

This entry is very straightforward. It is just meant to call your attention to what might be a more panoramic view of stress than you might currently be aware of. Consider my "3 A's" approach to coping with stress: If you ACCEPT the reality, if you become more self-AWARE, and if you learn ways to ADAPT to the infertility experience, you can shift from feeling vanquished to feeling victorious. Read More

Infertility as Transformative

The following passage is from the Essene Book of Days. It was given to my daughter and each of her classmates by the Dean of the college at their graduation ceremony. College graduation is among the many life changes that can be anticipated. Infertility is never anticipated. Read More

Creating a Virtual Campfire: Reclaiming Resiliency & Self-Efficacy in Serenity

In our frenzied world, it's easy to lose sight of our body and our mind's need for balance. Optimum health exists between activity and rest, work and play, wakefulness and sleep. This is how Nature means for it to be. Before electricity made it possible for the day to never end, it was easier to live life this way. Read More

Has Infertility Trashed Your Sex Life?

If you want to get pregnant, you can't stay in the privacy of your bedroom. Your sex life and your menstrual cycle used to be nobody's business but yours. Why do your private parts need to be under the glare of fluorescent lights? Read More

Group Support as an Antidote to the Isolation of Infertility

The time has come for you to start a family, but nothing is happening. Of all of the challenges that come at you from all fronts when you're trying to wrap your brain around the word "infertile," one of the most painful is that suddenly you are out of the mainstream. It's one thing to be out of the mainstream and floating down a pleasant tributary, so to speak. Read More

Infertility and Anger

When dreams are thwarted, it's normal to feel angry. And dreaming about having a family is not just any dream. It is central to what makes us human. Read More

"Letting-Go Coping" With Infertility

Coping means dealing with and overcoming problems, and there are plenty of those if you're in the fertility battle. In fact, problems of one kind or another roll at you like a tsunami at times and the main goal in coping is to learn how to ride the wave without getting swamped. Read More

The Fertility of Infertility

This is my first post. As an introduction it will provide an overview. Along the way, I'll be posting on different aspects of this arduous struggle with topics such as anger and infertility, shattered self-esteem, maintaining intimacy. Read More

Helen Adrienne, L.C.S.W., teaches stress reduction classes for infertility patients at NYU Fertility Center and is the author of On Fertile Ground: Healing Infertility.

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