No link between stress and infertility, doctor says, so stop telling couples, ‘Oh, just relax and you’ll get pregnant’

Kasmirah Scarbrough wants people to know that infertility is not a dirty word.

The Montgomery, Illinois, resident has been on a journey to have a baby with her husband, Derick, since 2010.

“It’s a roller coaster of emotions,” she said. “It’s hope, it’s fear, it’s loss. It’s a constant barrage of ‘I feel really good about this’ to ‘it didn’t work.’ ‘I feel really sucky about this,’ to ‘maybe there’s hope.’ ‘We can try it again’ to ‘it didn’t work again.’”

While infertility is stressful emotionally and physically (i.e., the pain associated with in vitro fertilization), Dr. Tarun Jain, reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at Northwestern Medicine, wants to reassure those going through it that there is no established