What is Reproductive Mental Health? How Does It Relate to Grief Counseling in Seattle?

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‘Reproductive mental health’ is a term that encompasses concerns from a variety of clients and concerns. Reproductive mental health concerns span across the lifetime. As adults, reproductive mental health impacts peoples’ lives of all genders, not only people with uteruses or birthing people. Women and birthing people do tend to experience more challenges related to reproductive mental health due to medical misogyny, a lack of societal supports, and patriarchal social norms. Institutionalized racism negatively impacts women of color the most. The role of hormonal changes, reproductive decision making, family building, health concerns, and loss are all components of this area of practice. Reproductive psychiatry is a branch of medical practice that deals with the treatment of psychiatric conditions related to reproduction.

Examples of Reproductive Mental Health Concerns

Mental health challenges related to hormone changes:

PMDD—Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

PMS—Premenstrual Syndrome

Pregnancy

Menopause

Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders:

Mood and anxiety disorders related to conception through one year postpartum.

Psychosis

Mental health challenges related to trying to conceive

Infertility

Third Party Reproduction

IVF/IUI

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Queer couples trying to conceive

Reproductive Health Challenges

PCOS—polycystic ovarian syndrome

Endometriosis

Fibroids

STIs—Sexually Transmitted Infections

Hormone imbalances

Menstrual issues

Erectile dysfunction

Infertility

Grief and Loss

Pregnancy loss

Miscarriage

Abortion

Infertility

Termination for Medical Reasons 

Four Ways Reproductive Mental Health and Grief Counseling Intersect

Mental health challenges related to reproduction are complex. Reproduction touches the deepest and most intimate parts of yourself as an individual and your relationships.

Misogyny:

Due to a historical and ongoing lack of research on women’s bodies, most conditions like menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause aren’t fully understood by society. This makes it more elusive, causes more shame, and ultimately makes it difficult for people to access quality care. Remember Freud? Remember hysteria? Yeah, that was the ‘diagnosis’ put on women for virtually any complaint they had. Hormones influence your body’s day to day functioning and can cause havoc when things go array. Part of the grief process in dealing with hormonal changes is realizing you don’t live in a society that prioritizes your needs. Conditions like PMDD can often be mis-diagnosed as bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder and for many people, it takes years to get properly diagnosed. In this society, pregnant people are treated more like vessels than people, and the focus is disproportionately put on the unborn rather than the birthing person. This can result on many forms of loss, the most severe being death of the birthing person. Once you have a baby, you may grieve the loss of your old life as you adjust to your new reality. People may grieve the lack of social support for growing their family. Those dealing with trying to conceive might grieve the process they expected to have growing their family. Queer couples may face discrimination and not feel like they fit into the traditional ‘infertility’ community. For couples facing infertility, they may grieve the bodies they thought they had and a future they wanted. Women experiencing perimenopause are often seen as ‘old and dried up’ as they’ve past their childbearing years. The grief around having a medical condition that the wider medical community doesn’t take seriously or invest much time can create rage. Getting proper care for those conditions can be extremely challenging and create a specific kind of trauma. The loss of a pregnancy, a stillbirth, abortion, or early infant loss is devastating, each in their unique way. Such grief can be exacerbated if services are not adequately trained to support clients. Disenfranchised grief is pervasive, where peoples’ grief is often misunderstood, minimized, or avoided.

Relationship to others:

The reproductive mental health concerns listed above all impact relationships. People may find grief related to how they expected themselves to act in relationships, grief around not feeling heard, understood, advocated for. People may find disappointed in the medical community, friends, or family. Discrimination related to sexual identify, gender identity, pregnancy status, or age can all be a part of reproductive mental health.

 Relationship to your body:

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Your relationship to your body changes throughout your lifetime. Learning and practicing being kind to a changing self can be hard. Reproductive milestones can often be a time of reflection on body image and potentially bring up previous challenges related to living in a world that has a strong anti-fat bias, obsesses over youth, and prioritizes men’s desires. Your relationship to your sexuality and sensuality will most likely change over your lifetime. At times, grief and confusion may arise and the need for curiosity, kindness, and connection with your body will be important.

Ambiguous Loss- Hopes, Expectations, Roles:

Reproductive mental health concerns often entail physical and emotional changes different from what you expected or hoped. The loss of something yearned for and dreamt of can be considered ambiguous grief. People don’t usually dream or expect things to be challenging, to not be believed, heard, or supported adequately. Unfortunately, these are common situations many clients share with me. Another type of change that can accompany reproductive mental health challenges relates to a changing of roles. Milestones such as trying to conceive, having a baby, being pregnant, dealing with a reproductive health medical concern, menopause and more impact your roles within your life. Creating space to help grieve what was and learning to create space for what is are important steps in moving forward. People may not know how to best support you and being able to advocate for your needs is vital.

Reproductive Mental Health and Grief Counseling Can Help

Reproductive mental health is the intersection of mind, body, and soul. Targeting your overall wellbeing during reproductive milestones can be a valuable strategy in life-long self-care. One of the first steps in moving forward is addressing the immense grief that can come from living in a world that doesn’t prioritize your needs. Processing feelings of frustration, sadness, rage, and disbelief are all part of processing grief and loss. Speak to a therapist who understands and is experienced in helping clients process these complex emotions and build a future they love. Reach out and schedule a free consultation today.

About the Author: Seattle Washington Therapist, Chelsea Kramer LMFT PMH-C

Chelsea Kramer is a Seattle Therapist who works with individual and families facing grief, anxiety, reproductive and medical mental health concerns.

Learn more about Chelsea’s specialties: grief, anxiety, infertility, pregnancy loss, chronic illness, menopause, medical trauma

Learn more about Chelsea

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