- 1. When first seeking assistance to become pregnant
- 2. When wondering what could help
- 3. When preparing to begin a particular treatment such as IVF
- 4. When undecided as to what to do
- 5. At times of particular crisis
- 6. When the stress and strain feel too much
- 7. If a pregnancy is not on-going
- 8. If difficulties occur in relationships
- 9. When looking at alternative ways to form a family or to stop treatment
- 10. When seeking more information
- 11. When needing to prepare for applications for approval to the national ethics
committee on assisted reproductive technologies
- 12. When thinking about being a donor or a surrogate, or about using these services
Many people are a bit hesitant about the idea of "counselling" but one of the most
common comments returned on our patient questionnaires it was valuable it was seeing
a counsellor.
A) Definition :
As per World Health Organization defines infertility as :
“Infertility is Inability to conceive a child. A couple may be considered infertile
if, after two years of regular sexual intercourse, without contraception, the woman
has not become pregnant (and there is no other reason, such as breastfeeding or
postpartum amenorrhea). Primary infertility is infertility in a couple who have
never had a child. Secondary infertility is failure to conceive following a previous
pregnancy. Infertility may be caused by infection in the man or woman, but often
there is no obvious underlying cause.”
A couple that tries unsuccessfully to have a child after a certain period of time
(often a short period, but definitions vary) is sometimes said to be subfertility,
meaning less fertile than a typical couple. Both infertility and subfertility are
defined as the inability to conceive after a certain period of time (the length
of which vary), so often the two terms overlap.