Dr. Alexandra Stockwell is a physician coach, intimacy and marriage expert, bestselling author of Uncompromising Intimacy, and host of the Intimate Marriage Podcast — ranked in the top one percent of podcasts globally. For over twenty years, she has helped high-achieving couples bring real connection back into every aspect of their relationship. In this episode, she and Dr. Erica tackle one of the most tender and rarely discussed topics on the fertility journey: what happens to intimacy when sex becomes either a medical protocol or something to be avoided entirely?

This episode is for every couple who has felt the warmth and passion slowly drain out of their relationship — and wants it back.

In this episode:

• Why sex during fertility treatment is fundamentally incongruent — and why naming that plainly is the first step toward changing it
• How the binary thinking of "we can't have sex, so we stop touching altogether" quietly erodes connection — and what to do instead
• Why rules against ejaculation are not rules against pleasure — and what that distinction actually opens up
• The upstream effect: how fertility treatment shrinks affection, non-sexual touch, and flirtation long before anyone realizes it's happening
• Why a woman's experience of genuine pleasure is one of the most generous things she can offer her partner — and how high-achieving women tend to skip past it
• Receptivity vs. passivity: why these are not the same thing, and how cultivating receptivity changes everything
• The mindfulness practice that takes thirty seconds and immediately increases sensation and connection
• How COVID-era dating accidentally created deeper relationships — and what couples on the fertility journey can learn from that
• Practical next steps: holding hands, a real embrace, one small act of affection that doesn't create an existential crisis
• How to listen to this episode together as a couple — and why you shouldn't do it like a good high-achieving student from start to finish
• Why the fertility journey, as painful as it is, can become an opportunity for deeper intimacy than you've ever had

Find Dr. Alexandra Stockwell:

• Website: alexandrastockwell.com
• Instagram: @intimacydoctor
• Book: Uncompromising Intimacy
• Podcast: The Intimate Marriage Podcast
• App: Intimate Connection

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As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

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Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove