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Fairfax Cryobank is honored to celebrate NIAW, a movement organized by RESOLVE to change the conversation around infertility and bring awareness to this issue.

National Infertility Awareness Week is an annual event dedicated to raising awareness about infertility. As a movement, it also organizes advocacy for increased accessibility to assisted reproductive technology and other fertility treatments. NAIW’s mission is to reduce the profound isolation and grief of infertility and to improve access to fertility treatments for all.  

From April 20-26, 2025, the National Infertility Association organizes a week of programming that includes social media campaigns, letter-writing to legislators, a virtual federal advocacy day, and the Proclamation Project, a movement toward state and federal recognition of NAIW.  

NIAW Promo:

To help ease the burden of infertility, Fairfax Cryobank is proud to offer a limited-time savings for NIAW.

• $1000 off 3+ Vials
• Free Storage for 6 months

Call now through April 30 at 8:00 PM ET and mention NIAW2025 to save.

*Terms and Conditions Apply

Grief, depression, and infertility 

Infertility is medically treated as a physiological condition, but it carries significant emotional effects as well. For people who want children, being unable to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term can cause deep grief and even clinical depression.  

Once people with infertility begin trying to conceive, challenges can accumulate quickly. Fertility treatments are extremely expensive, time consuming, and physically grueling, yet unless you tell someone what you are going through, there are few visible symptoms, so infertile people often end up suffering in silence.  

The rate of miscarriage in ART pregnancies is about 20%, and notably higher in people who receive ovarian hyperstimulation treatment, which is higher than the overall rate of miscarriage. Pregnancy loss, no matter when in the gestational period it occurs, is one of the most devastating things that can happen to someone who is trying to conceive. The emotional impact of bracing for the possibility of loss weighs heavily on many infertile people, even when they are able to become pregnant.  

Isolation 

For many folks handling an infertility diagnosis, the experience is one of extreme isolation. Walking around with a world-altering lump of grief and stress can create a feeling of being isolated from everyone—even in the company of others.  

When you are yearning for a baby, it can be really hard to spend time around pregnant people and babies. Many infertile people struggle with how to participate socially when their friends and communities are full of happily pregnant bellies and giggly newborns, but the mere sight of a baby brings up deep and challenging feelings. As time goes by, this type of self-induced isolation can shift from an incidental occurrence to a way of being. Because isolation is both a trigger and a symptom of depression and anxiety, this can be dangerous for mental health.  

Tips and support resources 

Infertility is a marathon, not a sprint. Whether you are facing complete infertility, undergoing fertility treatments, or supporting an infertile loved one, it’s useful to have a sense of what kind of support is out there.  

Mindset tips 

• Rationing and boundaries 

Infertility can quickly exhaust resources of time, money, and emotional bandwidth, so it is crucial to attune to yourself. Knowing what you are up for and what you cannot handle—whether it’s a five figure ART bill or another round of egg retrieval—will allow you to stay the course with less risk of burnout. 

• Close support 

Infertility will show you who your real friends are. The people who can hold space without offering platitudes during the grueling months and years of fertility treatments, and the people who can comfort you after a loss are one of the most important assets to any person or couple facing infertility. 

Community and professional resources 

• Support groups, virtual and IRL, can be a powerful source of support for infertile people and their partners and families. 

• Psychotherapy that specifically focuses on infertility is widely available and can provide a safe, anonymous space free from the interpersonal dynamics of friendship or partnership. Sometimes an educated stranger is the best person to talk to.  

Self-care practices 

• No, yoga will not solve your infertility-related grief, but it is an excellent practice for stress relief. It is also a gentle and accessible movement style that can be modified for safety at most physical stages of a fertility journey.  

• Breathwork, meditation, and mindfulness practices can be supportive to your mental health journey during infertility.  

• Massage, exercise, and other supportive bodywork practices can help you maintain a connection to your physical being that extends beyond your body’s capacity for reproduction.  

Infertility is a significant source of stress, and that stress can tendril out into all areas of your life: partnership, friendships, familial relationships, work, your relationship to your body. Secondary infertility can also be destructive to a family’s interpersonal dynamics, including relationships between parents and children.  

As you navigate these heavy challenges, you deserve care and dedicated support. NAIW events can be a great nudge to pour back into your own cup—you need it, and you deserve it.