How to go off a substance before fertility treatment
Before starting any type of fertility treatment, your healthcare team may recommend a few lifestyle changes.
Some of these could include giving up alcohol or psychiatric medication.
Many of my patients simply want to give themselves the best possible chance of a successful treatment, and sometimes that might mean giving up that glass or two of wine every evening or the second cup of coffee during the day.
Remember, I'm a psychologist. So I'm only going to be speaking about how to give up a substance before fertility treatment through a mental health lens.
Timing is everything when giving up a substance before fertility treatment
Anytime you're going to change your intake of any kind, whether it is coffee, alcohol, psychiatric medication, what we don't want to do is have you do that right before you have to go through fertility treatment.
Anytime we're going to do behavior change, we want it to be successful.
Does that mean putting yourself under pressure to stop a behavior right away? No.
You might want to choose a road of abstinence right away, or perhaps of moderation, where you decrease slowly, but you need the time and the space to do that.
You might feel symptoms that come along with getting rid of that substance, and they take time to disappear.
Physically, you might not feel as well, and that's going to impact your mood.
So do we really want to pile on getting ready for fertility treatment on top of that?
Be kind to yourself, be gentle with yourself, and give yourself the time and the space you deserve.
How to go off ADHD medication (or any psychiatric medication) before fertility treatment
It is a big decision whether or not to go off of ADHD medication, or any psychiatric medication before fertility treatment.
That's not only your decision, but that's also going to be coming from recommendations from your reproductive endocrinologist.
Here's what I recommend. Give yourself the time and space you need to go off of your medication.
Remember, this medication is being used as a tool to increase resources in your life.
If you're taking that tool away, we need to have other things to replace that tool.
In addition, fertility treatment requires that you increase your resources and tools to get through that process as well.
I love for people to take their time in going off of the medication. Seeing how they feel and how they are functioning. Thinking through with someone who specializes in this work, who can say and explain what you may be up against to help prepare you can be a great resource. If this is something you are looking to do, we may be able to help you.
A great example would be navigating Protocol calendars. This type of calendar helps to track your treatment, and can be overwhelming.
They're complicated.
Sometimes they can be confusing.
We want you to feel not so overwhelmed by the multiple medications you may need to take or even showing up for the appointments. And how do you juggle that with all the other things you're trying to juggle in your life?
Really taking the time to work side by side with someone with that is important. Also really important to talk to your family, friends and loved ones about how you're going to need additional support.
And I know that's not always easy to predict, but I'd love for you to be ready to advocate for yourself.
If you want to learn more about ADHD and fertility treatment you might get some insight from TikTok with , Dr. Leslie C. Sidy who really provides some really great content about ADHD.