When you are first trying have a baby, sex can be fun.  However, when it takes longer than you wanted or hoped, feelings of stress, anger, and sadness can arise, and sex can becomes work.   When sex becomes baby-making and not a way to express intimacy and closeness within a relationship, it usually loses the enjoyment. If you are unable to conceive or dealing with feelings around pregnancy loss, sexual issues for both men and women can be a normal part of dealing with the experience.   Thus, it is not uncommon for sexual dysfunction to happen as a result of the stress surrounding infertility.  One study found that about 40% of female infertility patients had increase risk for sexual dysfunction [...]

I was recently interviewed by a reporter and asked a question I hear often from patients who are undergoing fertility treatment –“how can you keep the romance alive in a relationship while undergoing treatment?”  This is what we discussed: “When you take your fertility problems to an expert for consultation or treatment,” Covington said “you’re exposing what’s usually a personal and private facet of your relationship. But those of us who work every day with people going through infertility see firsthand the lasting impact on marriages. When you’re desperately trying to get pregnant, sex becomes about procreation and not recreation.” Covington conveys a message that must be heard by fertility patients early on: When sex goes from being fun to [...]