IVF This Podcast Episode 199: IVF & Relief

What if one of the most honest emotions in IVF is also the one we judge the most? Today we're talking about relief—why it shows up, why it feels so wrong, and why it doesn't mean what you think it does.

Sometimes the hardest part of IVF isn't just what's happening to you—it's what's happening to the people around you. In this episode, we're talking about survivor's guilt: the complicated mix of joy, grief, guilt, and love that shows up when outcomes don't match.

If you've ever thought "I did everything right — why didn't IVF work?" this episode breaks down the Just-World Fallacy, the neuroscience of self-blame, and how to untangle fertility outcomes from guilt, shame, and worth.

IVF doesn't just break hearts—it can fracture your sense of self. In this episode, we unpack moral injury in infertility and fertility treatment, and why surviving impossible IVF decisions isn't a personal failure—it's a human response to an overwhelming system.  

In this episode of IVF This, we explore why the hardest part of IVF, grief, and uncertainty, isn't the outcome—but the emotions they bring up. We talk about emotional avoidance, anticipatory stress, and how building emotional tolerance can reduce anxiety and help you feel more grounded during fertility treatment and life's hardest moments.

Detachment in IVF doesn't mean you stop caring—it means learning how to care without losing yourself. In this episode, we explore the art of detachment during stim and transfer cycles, and how grounding helps you return to yourself while holding hope gently, no matter how this unfolds.  

IVF is full of moments we think will finally make it easier — until they don't. In this episode, we talk about the arrival fallacy, why milestones rarely deliver the relief we expect, and how to support yourself through the in-between.

The last embryo changes everything. In this episode, we talk about why "last" feels so heavy, how meaning gets attached to outcomes, and why it doesn't have to end in a positive to matter.  

The in-between — that space between what was and what's next — can feel unbearable during IVF. In this episode, I explore the liminal space: why it's so uncomfortable from both a brain and emotional perspective, and how you can reclaim this time as a meaningful, even sacred, part of your becoming.