However, if you are prepared for this and have a stock response to side-step it with, it doesn’t need to stop you from enjoying Christmas events.

Christmas can also be a time away from work, where you can choose what you want to do, how you want to spend your time and who you want to spend your time with. Make the most of that choice and use the time to help you to relax, to unwind and to boost your mood and energy.

Planning your Christmas in advance, can help you to have the type of holiday season that you want. Here are some of our suggestions, but you can also have fun brainstorming your own.

Fun with friends and family

You may have some wonderfully supportive family members or friends, who are completely up-to-date with your fertility situation. These are good people to have around, as they can cater for your dietary needs without fuss, won’t attempt to ply you with alcohol and will help to distract you with things they know you’ll find fun. If you are someone who likes to be around others, then going for meals, days out, or nights out, with friends and family, might be a great distraction.  

Couple time

It may be that the best option for you over Christmas is to take some time out, to just spend with your partner, if you have one. After trying to fit in clinic appointments around work and focusing on fertility, it may be a good idea to arrange some quality time together, for just the two of you. Curling up with mugs of hot chocolate and each other and watching an afternoon Christmas movie, might be just what you need. Maybe you have a series that you’d like to get stuck into together and you wouldn’t normally have the time – this is a great opportunity for it.  

Perhaps you are in need of a ‘date’ to put some romance back into your life. The pressure of months, or even years, of having intercourse timed for ovulation, can start to take the spark right out of a relationship. Going on an actual date, especially somewhere Christmassy, can help to bring that sparkle back.

Christmas markets

Whether it’s in the daytime, or all lit up with Christmas lights, a Christmas market is a great place to shop for presents for others, or for little treats for yourself.

Taking a stroll around a Christmas market, can soon leave you feeling so full of the Christmas spirit (not the alcoholic kind) that you can forget everything else and get caught up in the magic of Christmas.

Christmassy walks

Dressing up in hats and scarves and going for a Winter walk can be fun and the perfect gentle exercise. At this time of year, many woodland walks are decked out with fairy lights and music.

Hotel breaks

A change is as good as a rest – why not have both? Booking an overnight stay in a nice hotel and being pampered, can be a great mood lifter.

So many things are out of our control, but on the whole, how you decide to spend your Christmas, is totally your choice. Remind yourself that you deserve to have some fun and relaxation, so that you are re-fuelled, re-vitalised and ready to look forward to the New Year.

From all of us at the IVF Network, we wish you a happy Christmas and a wonderful new year.