Coping with Male Infertility as the Fertile Partner
Is infertility experienced differently by the fertile partner in a relationship? Host Dawn Davenport interviewed Dr. Andrea Braverman, a Clinical Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of OB/Gyn and Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. Since 1985, Dr. Braverman has worked as a health psychologist with a specialty in infertility counseling, third party reproduction and medical health management issues.
Hit the Highlights
- Coping with blame when one person in the relationship is infertile and the other is fertile.
- How can both partners resolve their individual and communal grief?
- Self-blame is common. “It is my fault my husband is not a dad.”
- Imbalance of power in the decision making when one partner is infertile.
- Coping with the guilt of putting your partner through all the pain, time, and money associated with fertility treatment.
- How to address third party reproduction when using donor sperm or donor egg would be the “easiest” and cheapest route to go, but would mean that the infertile partner would not have a genetic connection to the child?
- Getting your partner to talk about his/her infertility.
- Considering divorce.
- How to find a qualified therapist knowledgeable about infertility issues and grief.
- Special issues facing same sex couples.
For more information from this show and a discussion of this topic, check out Dawn’s blog on the show: Playing the Blame Game in Infertility. Please join the discussion or leave your thoughts about the show in the comments on the blog.
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Image Credit: Scott Smith
Show re-aired in 2017.