Psychological support

One in six people have difficulties to have children. When talking about “medically assisted reproduction”, we should be aware that medical assistance should also include psychological support. When starting a fertility treatment, intended parents have already gone through an emotionally intense turmoil. Often a grieving process is associated to their trajectory, either just because of not getting pregnant spontaneously or because of the need of using donor gametes. Suffering from infertility is often both invisible and underestimated by the outside world. For many patients there is a high barrier to seek help for such a personal and intimate problem. Moreover, as coping may differ between partners, relational problems may arise.

At Brussels IVF, for years we have a strong focus on the children’s welfare, as evidenced by our continued children follow-up studies on both physical and psychological well-being of the children born after ART. There is, however, also a need to improve awareness on the psychological well-being of the prospective parents.

While some patients meet with our psychologist by default, e.g. when in need of donor gametes, other patients are referred by their doctor or look for psychological support themselves. While poor prognosis is one important reason to withdraw from further treatment, emotional distress is the second important reason for discontinuing fertility treatment, eventually leading to childlessness, an even heavier psychological burden. Although in theory psychological support should be part of any fertility treatment from the start, in practice, this support often comes in when patients are already psychologically grounded.

Apart from evaluating specific treatment requests, our Brussels IVF psychologists also provide support before, during and after ART treatment. Such support is crucial for improving continuation rates eventually enhancing the chances for achieving parenthood and for patients general well-being.

In recent years, we paid more attention to the accessibility of our psychological support. By creating easy-access for psychological support and by developing webinars focusing on the mental wellbeing and resilience during IVF-treatment. Besides offering remedial support, we also focus on prevention by helping patients to prepare for stress-management during their ART trajectory. We are ready to give our patients the guidance they need when starting their journey to parenthood.

Psychology team:

• Julie Nekkebroeck

• Rani Cooreman

• Lize Leunens

• Eveline Buyse

Psychologist appointment: info@brusselsivf.be or +32 2 477 66 99

Webinar: Mental health and resilience during fertility treatment

Tuesday 3/10/2023 at 8 p.m.

Tuesday 21/11/2023 at 8 p.m.

Registration: www.uzbrussel.be > search: webinar

More information: webinarbrusselsivf@uzbrussel.be