The number of things defined as a psychological ailment/disorder/illness is getting ridiculous another 2-3 decades and having a thought of "fill the blank" will be considered an illness in need of a pill.

There is a thing called life. It's stressful, it doesn't always meet expectations. One can buckup and face it head on or they can fold and say poor pitiful me. Our culture today encourages the second as it increases decadency on others (read gov't).

As a person who is Bi-polar and successfully un-medicated for many years now (and yes I still have all the symptoms), I have learned I can do one of 2 things when it comes to the mood swings; give in to the "feelings" (submit) or I can face them and let them flow over me (fight). I have learned that I am not responsible for the problem I am however responsible for what I do with it.

I can choose to be a victim or a survivor. Today I am a survivor and I will not let my broken default brain chemistry control me. I am a rational human being capable of making choices and today I choose how I feel even when my subconsciousness tries to tell me otherwise.

As a women who has struggled with infertility, I can attest that the struggle can take a horrible toll on your mind, body and spirit.

It has been a long struggle and after losing 2 babies and nearly dying from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, I have had to come to terms with the fact that I will never give birth to my own biological child.

I invite anyone who doesn't believe that these kind of experiences can cause a great deal of trauma to walk a mile in my shoes.

Of course it can cause sadness or loss of expectations but PTSD? Please people. Why is it so important for folks to carry on so called genetic code? Unless you are an Eistein or something, in most cases peoples offspring are average. Life is full of stressors and does not always work out the way we want. Next you will have infertile women and men seeking compensation to cover the ptsd.

Nobody wants to jump on the PTSD "bandwagon" and anyone who thinks we would want to is a moron. It took us 8 yrs to get my precious child and we tried for 4 more yrs for #2. The first one was 2yo before I fully mentally accepted that I am finally a mom and nothing bad is going to happen to take this away from us. I didn't need this study to know I have PTSD and am dealing with it on my own. I am glad that IF is getting some validation that is so traumatic, losing a baby is traumatic, having your body fail you month after month is traumatic. Being socially alienated is traumatic. Mother's day was hell. Stop judging something you have NO IDEA about and no first hand experience with.

I have to say that I am extremely disappointed in this article. As a psychologist, I conduct diagnostic evaluations on a daily basis. PTSD is a specific constellation of symptoms and does not result from every experience of trauma. The statement, "The definition of trauma should be expanded to include expectations of life," said Bradow," is not only disappointing to hear but factually incorrect. The actual criteria A for PTSD is a)the person witnessed or was confronted with an event that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others and b) the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness or horror (direct quote from the DSM-IV-TR). THIS is the criteria for PTSD and as much as Bradow would like to change the criteria and expand it to "life expectations" she does not have the authority to do so. That would be like a medical doctor deciding that he/she wants to change the criteria for cancer or the flu. There are other conditions that might aptly capture what women going through fertility treatments are experiencing – something like Adjustment Disorder. But studies/articles like this serve to only overpathologize us rather than accept that as humans we have a full range of emotions – and some of those emotions are really unpleasant. I do agree with one point and that is that women who are going through fertility treatment should be encouraged to seek counseling/therapy – it's always good to have someone to talk to when we are going through rough times and having someone who objective and not so emotionally tied to the situation can be especially helpful. Sorry for my "rant" but I think that people should be informed – PTSD is a very serious diagnosis and unfortunately it seems that mental health diagnoses in general are being applied to people without much thought to the actual criteria for diagnosis.

Three thoughts:

1) Perhaps if infertility were seen as a serious condition (as evidenced by remarks like, "who cares about passing on your genes? There are plenty of kids waiting to be adopted", and "Hey, at least not having children isn't gonna kill you, like cancer or heart disease"), women wouldn't be as reluctant to admit they are having trouble conceiving and thus it would be more out in the open than it is.

2) All the hormonal manipulation involved with conception/pregnancy can wreak havoc with anyone's mental health; how was this accounted for in the study?

3) Half of all fertility issues are either "non-specified" (meaning there is no discernible reason for the infertility) or due to issues with the male. Did the women who fell into these categories suffer the same PTSD symptoms as those who were diagnosed with a reason for the infertility?

I don't even need to be a woman to know that no matter how traumatic being unable to have children of your own is, it's not in the same league as being violently raped or seeing a friend's head explode like a watermelon. Stop freaking pathologizing every single negative emotion or life experience, the fact that it hurts like hell doesn't mean it's mental illness.

I have learned to ignore the adoption advocates. They have no idea how hard adoption is, how expensive it can be, and how unattainable it is for certain people.

Those of us living with infertility are living most people's worst nightmare. They're right, infertility won't kill you; you'll just wish you were dead. That said, maybe infertiles don't have PTSD but it's the closest thing in our vocabulary that explains what it's like. If you disagree, my guess is you've never personally experienced your baby dying every month for years on end.

Perhaps PTSD isn't exactly the right term to use. Much of the stress while dealing with infertility occurs during and for a few years after resolution. (Resolution can be success in achieving pregnancy and live baby, adoption, or the decision to remain childless.)

I experienced both primary and secondary infertility and can relate to the things others have said about the experience. As agonizing as the situation is, having people who view it as a "minor inconvenience...not life and death" doesn't help.

During infertility treatments, your life is built around a schedule of doctors, medical procedures, tests, and treatments. Hope can be seen on ultrasound each month only to end in yet another disappointment. The emotional roller coaster is horrible but the woman is often going through medications and medical procedures that are invasive and can have side effects that include physical, emotional, and the family and friends she would turn to for other stressful life events (cancer, death of loved one, etc.) often don't understand the depth at which infertility affects a woman and a couple, don't know how to offer encouragement, are afraid to give false hope, and begin to distance themselves from the woman as if for self-protection from living the ups and downs of this situation with her.

Perhaps infertility could have a different lable regarding the emotional stress a couple goes through. Perhaps something like PROLONGED Stress Syndrome.

Even after giving birth to my second child, I experienced a few years where I would feel a sense of "why?" and "What if?" whenever I would see a parent with a baby or toddler.

There are plenty enough things that an infertile couple must deal with, they do not need others telling them how they should feel or having to defend themselves for the choices they take in seeking to remedy their situation. After all....the couple who had several kids without trying were free to make THEIR choice to do so.

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