Case. A couple can’t conceive for a long time; the wait turned into stress, mutual reproaches and distance.
Model. A chronic background load with no explicit incident wears the system down quietly. It’s easy to mistake fatigue from the process for cooling toward the partner.
What helped. They separated “the problem” from “the partner”: a team against the difficulty, not against each other; they protected closeness outside the topic.
Lesson. In a long trial, staying on the same side matters most.
See Resources to recover.