Mental Health Care for Fertility Patients

Our dedicated Stanford Medicine Children’s Health mental health therapist specializes in reproductive counseling and works one-on-one with individuals and couples who are undergoing fertility treatments or who are experiencing recurrent pregnancy loss. You can expect:

• Psychotherapy and coping strategies to help with your emotions, such as frustration, grief, loss, worry, and hopelessness. This includes aiding you with coping when conception isn’t possible and providing support while you embrace other family-building options (if desired).
• Regular sessions that are coordinated around your fertility appointments.
• Support post conception and during pregnancy, through the often-emotionally charged first trimester, with a referral to a mental health provider within our Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine program for seamless and holistic care.

Infertility can be a hard and long journey. This support group has similar goals as the Trying to Conceive individual therapy sessions (above), but it is in a group setting that connects people who are receiving infertility treatments to share wisdom, comfort, and their personal take on how to cope. Partners are welcome. You can expect:

• Support from our mental health therapist.
• A casual, open setting where drop-ins are welcome.

Miscarriage (perinatal loss) is the most common pregnancy complication, occurring in approximately one in four women in the United States. Knowing that it’s fairly common doesn’t make it easier. In our holistic, multispecialty Recurrent Pregnancy Loss program at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, our patients (who have experienced multiple miscarriages or recurrent pregnancy loss) receive mental health support that comes in different forms.

Besides our Stanford Children’s mental health services for fertility patients, you can gain access to resources throughout Stanford Medicine to help address your mental health care needs. These include:

Women’s Wellness Clinic at Stanford

Our Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Fertility and Reproductive Health program partners with this Stanford clinic to help provide prepregnancy consultations to our patients who are experiencing depression and mood and anxiety disorders or who have experienced trauma during past pregnancies. The clinic has been focusing on providing specialized mental health care to women for more than 30 years. The Women’s Wellness Clinic offers:

• Prepregnancy and pre-conception psychiatric care - For individuals who are trying to conceive or who are going through infertility treatments. Includes consultations and medication guidance with a psychiatrist.
• Sexual Health Clinic - The only clinic of its kind in America that provides therapist-guided treatment for vaginismus (the body’s automatic reaction to the fear of vaginal penetration). Also uses yoga and trauma care to relieve sexual pain to promote conception.

LGBTQ+ Trying to Conceive group

LGBTQ+ individuals can experience anxiety, sadness, frustration, and depression when facing challenges as they try to build a family. If you are someone who identifies LGBTQ+ and need some extra emotional or mental health support, you can contact Stanford Medicine’s THRIVE (therapeutic, healing, resilience, inclusivity, values, empowerment) clinic to inquire about the LGBTQ+ Trying to Conceive group. The group is open to California residents. It offers:

• Mental health care for everyone who identifies as LGBTQ+ and is trying to conceive, as well as for their partners.
• An affirming virtual space.
• An opportunity to learn basic mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills to help regulate emotions and cope during conception and beyond.