For a woman who has already conceived and given birth to a child, or even several children, the diagnosis of secondary infertility can be a bewildering and disorienting experience. According to the Centers for Disease Control, infertility affects approximately 5.3 million Americans; one out of ten married couples are facing some form of infertility issue, whether it’s the quest for their first child or adding additional children to their family.
For Leigh Kenyon (not her real name), disbelief colored her inability to conceive following the birth of her first child. “When my daughter was two, I miscarried my second pregnancy in the first trimester. When we tried again, I simply couldn’t get pregnant.”
As Leigh and many others have discovered, because it’s called “secondary,” (which means you’ve conceived in the past regardless if the outcome was a live birth, still birth, abortion or loss of pregnancy to miscarriage), your anxiety may not be taken seriously. The “proof” of her previous fertility kept Leigh from following up on her concerns as she struggled to make sense of the disparity between what her body was telling her and the reassurance offered by others. “I worried that something was wrong, but friends, family and even my OB kept telling me to relax, not to be in such a rush since I was obviously able to get pregnant. Even I assumed I must be able to conceive since I had done so twice before.”
