An infertility primer for family therapists: II. Working with couples who struggle with infertility

The distress of infertility and its medical treatments are profound, and the effects reverberate in each partner, the couple dyad, and the couple's relationships with family, friends, and medical systems. Yet family therapists, like others in our society, are often uninformed or misinformed about the experience of infertility. While the legacies of infertility may be painful and enduring, they often remain unspoken, and hence may be overlooked in standard interviews. This article describes the experiences of couples struggling with infertility, most of whom have sought medical intervention, and it provides treatment interventions for guiding couples through this difficult and often uncharted terrain. Case vignettes derived from 2 years of this clinical research study are included.