Infertility doesn’t just live in doctor’s offices, test results, or calendars marked with ovulation windows. It lives in your body. It shows up in the silence after another negative test. In baby showers you smile through while your chest tightens. In the quiet grief no one sees because there was never a “loss” others could name. And for many women, it brings a kind of emotional whiplash… hope, disappointment, resolve, exhaustion… all cycling faster than your nervous system can recover. If you’ve walked this road, you know how isolating it can feel.

If you’re considering EMDR therapy, there’s a good chance you’ve already done a lot of surviving. You may be functioning well on the outside - holding a job, caring for your family, showing up for others - but inside, something still feels unsettled. Maybe past experiences continue to surface through anxiety, emotional overwhelm, hypervigilance, or a constant sense of being “on edge.” You might have tried talk therapy before and found it helpful, but not quite enough to reach the deeper root of what you’re carrying.

Trauma for first responders rarely arrives as a single, isolated event. Unlike civilians, who may encounter one or two major crises in a lifetime, firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and dispatchers face repeated exposure to emergencies, sometimes multiple times a day. Over time, these experiences don’t just fade away. They stack, accumulating in the nervous system and shaping emotional, physical, and relational wellbeing. This long-term buildup is known as cumulative trauma, and it is one of the most significant, yet most overlooked, mental health challenges first responders face.

Trying to start a family is supposed to be one of life’s most hopeful journeys. But when infertility becomes part of that story, especially for couples in the fire service, it can feel more like an emotional battlefield.