If you’ve been through fertility treatment, this feeling may sound familiar. The constant pokes, prods, scans, and monitoring can leave you feeling exposed, vulnerable, and trapped in a body that no longer feels like your own. What once felt familiar and within your control may start to feel dictated by procedures, hormone injections, blood draws, and appointments, taking both an emotional and physical toll.

The quiet, personal experience of trying to conceive at home is often replaced by bright lights, schedules, and clinic rooms. Even the small things that once brought comfort, like exercise routines or enjoying sushi or a glass of wine, may suddenly be off limits. Over time, the loss of your routines, favorite stress relievers, and other everyday choices add up, leaving you feeling disconnected from your body and unsure of how to get that sense of ownership back.

Fertility treatment often asks you to give up a lot of control over your body. Even when care is necessary, it can still feel invasive. Eventually, this loss of control can create distance between you and your body, and it can show up in a few common ways:

Your body starts to feel public.
Parts of your body and experiences that once felt private are now talked about openly, measured, and picked apart by people you barely know. Even in caring hands, it can be hard to deal with that loss of privacy.

Your body starts to feel unpredictable.

© Psychology Today