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Fertility Support

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Fertility Support

Fertility Support is the only psychotherapy practice focused on fertility and gynaecological issues.

Our team includes specialised psychotherapists who have ample experience working on issues such as: assessing fertility options (including IVF, surrogacy, donors or adoption), pregnancy-related issues (including high risk-pregnancies or birth trauma), exploring a “child-free” or ”child-less” lifestyle, considering a termination, coping with medical issues such as endometriosis, PCOS or adenomyosis, and dealing with erectile dysfunction, among other issues. Fertility Support offers individual therapy and couples therapy as well as group therapy and one-day retreats. Our aim is to offer individuals a space where they can find compassionate care, understanding and a new way forward.

17/12/2025

A difficult fertility journey is one of the most demanding life experiences an individual can face. For partners, parents, siblings, and friends, it can also feel daunting, with no clear roadmap for how to be alongside someone going through treatment. You may want to make things better, to find the right words, to stay composed for their sake. Yet over time, that effort can bring its own difficulty and uncertainty.

This 3-hour online workshop is for family members and friends of people going through infertility. It offers a reflective space to think about what it means to accompany someone through this experience and to make sense of your own emotions within it. Together we will explore how to remain connected, steady and compassionate, both towards yourself and the person you love.

👥 Groups are offered separately for non-carrying partners and close family members of those trying to conceive

💻 Online, interactive workshop with discussion and practical exercises

⏰ 3 hours

🔗 Learn more or book your place – link in bio

16/12/2025

Pema Chödrön, an American Buddhist nun, teaches that compassion requires courage. During a fertility journey, compassion begins when we stop attacking ourselves for what is already painful. It means not blaming ourselves for not being able to conceive, not criticising ourselves for small lapses in nutrition or discipline, not demanding perfection in a process that is full of uncertainty.

This kind of compassion is daring because it asks us to soften in the face of fear. When we stop punishing ourselves, we come closer to what feels most frightening: that we are not in control, that outcomes cannot be guaranteed, that effort does not always bring results. To stay gentle in that truth takes more bravery than constant striving ever could.

Compassion allows us to live honestly within uncertainty rather than fighting against it. It lets us turn toward what is difficult, not to fix it, but to remain present with it.

What would it be like to meet your fear of not being in control with compassion instead of criticism?

10/12/2025

, Marchioness of Bath, has spoken candidly about her decision to welcome her second child via surrogacy. After her first pregnancy ended in a life-threatening condition involving inflammation of her pituitary gland and a brain bleed, medical professionals advised that carrying another child could place her life at serious risk.

She described the decision to use a surrogate as “a massive decision,” saying she “felt guilty and … confused,” and that it was only through sharing with other women who had reached the same decision that she was able to arrive at her own.

Guilt in surrogacy often sits at the intersection of medical necessity, social judgement and internalised ideas about what a mother is supposed to do with her body. What Emma names here is not ambivalence about wanting her child, but the psychological cost of reaching motherhood by a route that was not freely chosen. Surrogacy, in this sense, is not a solution without loss. It is a reconfiguration of how loss and parenthood coexist.

Surrogacy reshapes how pregnancy is emotionally inhabited. The relationship to the baby is formed through intention, imagination, and steady commitment rather than through physical sensation. What is missing physically is often held psychologically, in thought, vigilance and care.

07/12/2025

Few months present as many multicultural celebrations as December; Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, New Year, Omisoka, and many more.

Navigating these holidays can be difficult when dealing with fertility issues due to the emphasis on family and children. Additionally, remarks or questions from relatives and friends can add to the emotional stress during this time.

Please consider the following as you navigate the holiday season:

1. Communicate your needs: Share your feelings with your loved ones, especially those you trust and feel comfortable confiding in. Let them know if you need support, understanding, or space during the holiday gatherings.

2 Establish boundaries: It’s okay to decline invitations or choose which events to attend based on your emotional well-being. Prioritize self-care and do what feels right for you, whether it means attending smaller gatherings or taking time for yourself.

3. Seek support: Consider joining a support group or seeking psychotherapy. Sharing your journey with others who understand can provide comfort and validation.

4. Plan self-care activities: Engage in activities that bring you joy and help reduce stress. This can include practicing relaxation techniques, pursuing hobbies, exercise, or spending quality time with your partner.

5. Practice self-compassion: Remember to be kind to yourself and acknowledge that fertility struggles are not your fault. Give yourself permission to feel and acknowledge your emotions.

Everyone’s journey is unique, so it’s essential to find what works best for you during this time. Reach out for support when needed, and remember to be gentle with yourself as you navigate the holiday season.

04/12/2025

In November 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first global guideline on infertility, recognising it as a major public health and equity issue rather than a private problem. Around 1 in 6 people of reproductive age will experience infertility, and in many countries care is either unavailable or only reachable through catastrophic out-of-pocket costs.

The guideline sets out 40 evidence based recommendations across prevention, diagnosis and treatment, covering male, female and unexplained infertility. It promotes cost-effective options at each step of care, from information on fertility and timing of in*******se, through lifestyle and STI prevention, to structured pathways for investigations, IUI and IVF where appropriate.

World Health Organization (WHO) is clear that infertility care should sit within universal health coverage: available in national health systems, integrated into health strategies and financing, and provided without discrimination. It also explicitly acknowledges the emotional impact of infertility, highlighting distress, stigma and financial strain, and calls for ongoing access to psychosocial and mental health support as a core part of fertility care, not an optional extra.

03/12/2025

Anxiety in fertility treatment often arises from the strain of wanting something deeply while having so little control over how it unfolds. It can be a tightness that settles in the chest on the way to an appointment, or a restless alertness that appears at night when the house is quiet. It can be a sudden rush when something unexpected shifts a plan, or a slow unease that comes from not knowing what the next stage will ask of them. However it shows itself, the feeling is usually tied to how much has been invested and how much remains uncertain.

What often unsettles people most is the fear that their anxiety says something about them, or about how treatment will go. It can be easy to assume that feeling this much means they are not coping well, or that the body is responding “incorrectly” to stress. But anxiety in this context is usually a sign of how strongly the longing is held, and how carefully hope has been stitched together after earlier disappointments. It marks the weight of what matters, not a flaw in the person living through it.

Meeting the feeling with a bit of gentleness can widen the emotional space around it. Not to make it disappear, but to understand what it is speaking to. Sometimes it reveals where previous cycles still ache. Sometimes it shows where expectations have been quietly adjusted in order to stay hopeful. Sometimes it simply reflects the human cost of navigating repeated uncertainty. When anxiety is seen in this light, it becomes possible to hold it without letting it define the journey or predict its outcome.

01/12/2025

Support in fertility treatment is not just emotional comfort. It has a measurable effect.

Research published in Human Reproduction shows that when support feels attuned rather than intrusive, fertility-related stress decreases. Genuine support changes the meaning of what the person is living through. It interrupts isolation. It quietens the part of the mind that tries to turn medical events into private conclusions about worth, capability or future outcome.

When someone feels understood by their partner or a close family member, the internal pressure of treatment shifts. The same experiences still unfold — the waiting, the tests, the moments of disappointment — but they land differently. They no longer feel like a private battle that has to be managed in silence.

When support rises in this way, stress often lowers because the emotional load becomes shared rather than held alone. The journey remains complex, but its weight becomes more bearable when it rests across more than one pair of shoulders.

We will be holding our workshop for family members wanting to support a loved one going through infertility this Saturday. More information in the link in bio.

26/11/2025

On ’s podcast “Dear Chelsea”, Chelsea and speak directly to the emotional weight carried by women who are struggling to conceive and find themselves watching friends become pregnant. It is a complicated place “to be confronted with watching someone I care about get something I don’t have and I really want.” says Monica.

The difficulty sits in the sudden encounter with what has not happened, in seeing someone else move into a future that still feels uncertain for you. And this grief often goes unacknowledged. Facing these feelings, some step back to protect themselves or because they are ashamed of their own emotions. Some even begin ghosting friends because staying present feels too exposing.

Authenticity can feel impossible because the truth might sound like this: “I am happy for you but I feel jealous”. The words feel too sharp, too heavy, even though they arise from sadness rather than ill will. Monica calls for compassion from friends, yet her words point to something more elemental, the necessity of turning that compassion inward towards the part of oneself that has been carrying this ache in silence.

What becomes possible when the feeling is named with accuracy rather than hidden for fear of sounding unkind?

24/11/2025

Nayyirah Waheed, the Somali-diasporic poet, writes about embodiment and belonging. Her words speak to the possibility of reconciliation with a body that has known pain or rejection.

During a fertility journey, this reconciliation can feel distant. The body is tested, medicated, and measured. It becomes a site of disappointment and scrutiny rather than trust. A quiet conflict begins to form between you and the very body you are relying on.

Over time, this conflict can turn into quiet hostility. Each injection, each appointment, each result can reinforce the feeling that your body is not cooperating. You might feel betrayed when your hopes depend on something that seems unwilling to respond. Yet this hostility takes its toll. The more you distance yourself from your body, the harder it becomes to rest, to eat with ease, or to feel at home in yourself.

Befriending the body means allowing compassion to replace judgment. It is the point where you begin to recognise that your body has been responding to strain, not failing to perform. This body has endured countless procedures and emotional storms. It carries the weight of longing and the imprint of every loss. It deserves gentleness, not discipline.

Rest, nourishment, and softness become acts of repair. Each one signals that the body is no longer treated as a problem to manage but as part of your lived experience to be understood. Over time, this relationship shifts from control to care, from criticism to understanding.

What might change if you began to treat your body as something to care for rather than something to correct?

18/11/2025

Dr Isabel Davis and Anna Burel .burel.illustration will join Alejandra Lozada Andrade from .support on an Instagram Live to explore what happens when fertility doesn’t follow a straight line.

Dr Isabel Davis is a literary historian and museum research leader whose new book Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present .conceptions.project (illustrated by Anna Burel) asks how people in the past lived with fertility uncertainty, and what that history can teach us today.

Anna Burel .burel.illustration is a London-based artist whose work centres on women’s bodily experience and reproductive health. She is the illustrator of the book and co-creator of the card deck Fertility Fortunes, designed to open thoughtful conversations around fertility, expectation, hope and doubt.

We’ll be talking about:
🍃What we can learn by looking back at fertility in history
🍃How self-judgement shapes the fertility journey and what that means in practice
🍃Why visual tools and metaphor matter in speaking about fertility, waiting and identity
🍃How anyone working in fertility support can draw on history, art and conversation tools

📅 Thursday 20 November
🕖 7 pm UK time
📍 Instagram Live

Have a question you’d like us to explore on the live? DM us beforehand and we’ll do our best to include it.

13/11/2025

Psychotherapist and author joins on the podcast Conversations with Annalisa Barbieri for a thoughtful exploration of one of the most emotionally complex questions many people face: “Should I have a(nother) baby?”

Together, they explore what lies beneath this question: the hopes, fears and relational dynamics it can bring to the surface. They consider what such questions might reveal about identity, desire and the meaning of family, and how to approach these reflections with honesty and care.

They also discuss the decision to pursue parenthood alone, offering reflective prompts to help listeners think through what clarity might look like for them.

’s work has long focused on reproductive life. Her first book, The Brink of Being, explores the varied experiences of miscarriage, while Everyone’s a Critic examines the psychology of self-criticism. She also leads Tender Strength, a six-week online group for women navigating repeated pregnancy loss.

More information about the podcast and Tender Strength via the links in bio.

10/11/2025

Kristen Wiig has spoken about her fertility journey, reflecting on the years before she became a mother through surrogacy in 2020. She went through IVF, which she has described as the most difficult time in her life. In talking about it, she gave language to what many experience quietly: how treatment can take over daily life and gradually alter one’s sense of self.

She said she “wasn’t herself.” That feeling is familiar to many who go through IVF. The constant monitoring, the hormones, the cycle of hope and disappointment can leave a person feeling like a stranger in their own life. What once felt ordinary, including mood, body and personality, can start to feel altered or out of reach.

She has also said that she stopped talking about it because she felt sad whenever someone asked. That kind of silence often begins as self-protection. It can feel easier not to revisit the pain, but over time it can lead to distance from friends, from daily life and sometimes from oneself.

IVF is often described as a medical process, but its emotional and psychological impact runs much deeper. It can unsettle identity and make it hard to stay connected to others when conversation itself becomes a reminder of loss. To recognise this is to see IVF not only as a treatment, but as an experience that asks a person to hold on to who they are, even when everything around them starts to shift.

Address

239 Kensington High Street
London
W86SA

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 7pm
Tuesday	9am - 7pm
Wednesday	9am - 8pm
Thursday	9am - 8pm
Friday	9am - 7pm

Website

https://www.fertilitysupportlondon.com/

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