Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Overwrought

Is how my state of mind has been in the last day or two. Last night I became convinced that the abdominal and lower back pain I was having must be the beginning of a pelvic infection from the hysteroscopy (camera through the cervix thingy) I had last week. So after 60 minutes at the after hours clinic and and expenditure of $83.50, I had a packet of 30 ibuprofen and advice to come back again if I started to get a temperature or feel sick. L was very good to refrain from saying 'I told you so' and chauffeured me both ways with no complaint.

Anyway, so I found this article, where Dr Lesley Regan, who runs the top recurrent miscarriage clinic in the world (based in London) says "We have done studies that have shown that the levels of psychological distress and disturbance in couples who have repeated miscarriages and lose babies is very similar to that in psychiatric hospitals. It really is an enormous burden on people."

So the first thing this makes me think is "Yay, finally some validation for my wonky emotional state." Cos seriously, infertility and pregnancy loss hardly ever show up in official literature about stressors that impact on emotional health.

But then I start to wonder "Does this mean I should be institutionalised or is it just that the UK its easier to get into a psychiatric inpatient unit?"

2 comments:

strong light said...

I was tempted to write "I have read your blog" :-)

But then I thought, I wonder if pharmaceutical companies and psychiatrists have marketed a treatment for dealing with the effects of infertility and pregnancy loss? Must go look in DSM IV (or whatever they're up to now)...

Would it be cynical to suggest there could be good money in it?

Kitsunegirl said...

Yeah except there are some disincentives for people trying to get pregnant to take antidepressants - they slightly raise the risk of birth defects. It can also be a problem if you think you might end up wanting to do adoption, particularly international adoption as lots of countries aren't too keen on people who have been diagnosed with mental illness adopting their babies.