What Are Our Options When We Can’t Conceive?
There’s nothing worse than being told that you can’t have kids. In that moment, all of your hopes and dreams about having a family disappear. While it might feel like there’s no coming back from a revelation like that, you have a lot more options than you might realize. They might not be ideal and you may feel as though it won’t be the same as conceiving your own child but the truth is, you can have a fully functional family without having a baby in the traditional way. If you’re trying to decide on your next step, here are some of your options.
Keep Trying
Depending on what the doctor has told you, it might be worth waiting a while to see if you can conceive naturally before trying anything else. It might be that the doctor has told you that you have a reduced chance of having a baby, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen at all. If this is the case, try setting a time limit of a year and agree that if you aren’t pregnant by then, look into other options.
There are some natural remedies that have been known to help people get pregnant but there is a lot of debate in the scientific community about their reliability so take it with a pinch of salt. Some couples have reported that acupuncture has helped them to get pregnant so you could try that. It is quite expensive so think about it properly before you decide to start spending a lot of money on these kinds of treatments. Beyond that, you should be trying to live a healthy lifestyle generally. Eating well, giving up alcohol and smoking, and exercising regularly will all improve your chances of conceiving.
Fertility Treatments
There are more reliable treatments that you can use to help improve your chances. Again, these treatments are incredibly expensive so they might not work for everybody. Having sperm injections has been proven to help couples get pregnant but there’s no telling how long it will take and when you are paying a lot for it, it isn’t always practical.
Surrogate
Once you’ve exhausted all other options and it is clear that you won’t be able to conceive yourselves, you need to look at your other options. If you find somebody that is willing to be a surrogate, they can carry the baby for you, but it will still be yours, biologically. People often feel strange about the idea of donors or adopting a child that isn’t theirs biologically so surrogacy is a good option.
Adoption
Your other option is to adopt a child instead. Some people would rather have a child that they have conceived themselves, or at least carried by a surrogate. If this doesn’t bother you, then adopting a child is something you should definitely look into. For some couples, it is a better choice because it gives you the chance to help a child that would otherwise be without a family. A lot of the worries that people have about forming a family bond are unfounded and most families that have adopted will tell you that their family is just like any other.
