Psychogenic Infertility
Psychogenic Infertility refers to infertility when there are no known physical causes. In the 1950's 50% of infertility cases were thought to be due to psychological factors, that might include an actual sub-conscious resistance to becoming pregnant. Unfortunately this was grossly inaccurate and led to many women believing wrongly that they were in some way responsible for their inability to conceive. Many of these cases fell into that category because of the inadequacy of testing procedures at that time. At present 5% of infertility cases are not attributable to physical causes.
Since the profile of complimentary therapies has heightened in recent years, we have seen the growth of what you might almost call an ethic within its catchments area i.e. if your sick it's because of the way you think. In the same way that Thatcher's dictum of, if you're poor it's your own fault, was quite an unhelpful idea, so it is with this. If someone has cancer they may have cured themselves by using alternative methods and this has been attested to, but part of their healing process was certainly not blaming themselves for their disease. If someone seeks to use hypnotherapy to dissolve a possible psychogenic background to infertility we want them to enter into it in an open minded way without taking it for a personal odyssey.
Present research in areas such as the effect of neuro-peptides, suggest that, in fact emotions are triggers for chemical messengers within the body and that the body's internal chemistry and the emotional life of a person are part of a feedback loop. This suggests that we do in fact influence our bodies in a very powerful ongoing way by our thinking and emoting.
If there has been some sort of difficulty in normal sexual development or if a person has come out of a very shaky family environment in which for example, the father has been completely irresponsible and the burden of keeping the family together has fallen on the mother, there may be a sub-conscious reluctance to possibly recreating the same distress. This may contribute in an important way to the occurrence of infertility where there are no real physical reasons why the woman should not conceive.
Uncovering unresolved painful emotions around these types of issues is something that can be done in quite a lucid way by means of hypnotic trance. If we establish what the emotional background is, very vividly, this in itself can sometimes have a very powerful liberating effect.
Also we can simply address the sub- conscious with direct suggestions that becoming pregnant is ok and that it is alright to simply let go of whatever resistance there might be. .In hypnosis you are able to connect with very deep levels of your awareness, which are strongly identified with natural processes. This helps you to disconnect from the more superficial agendas based around perceived anxieties, and perhaps feelings of inadequacy. You can begin to generate very strong positive feelings about yourself. You can begin to allow your mind to rest in an unproblematical, natural and relaxed attitude that springs from a deep accepting level in yourself. This undoubtedly changes your body chemistry in a positive way and may create quite a profound shift in the problem.