What is secondary loss?

Grief is such an individualized process for each person. No matter what the loss is that you have experienced, your grieving process is likely to include secondary loss. Secondary loss can be described as the sort of aftershocks of the grieving process. An example of this might be after losing a loved one, the resurgence of feelings of loss that you feel when you engage in an activity for the first time that was special to you and the one you lost. Secondary loss is a major factor in why grief is such a unique process; there is no way to predict all of the ways that the pain of loss might reappear in our journey over time.

When dealing with issues related to fertility and reproductive health, secondary loss is extremely common and can be hard to describe to others.