Psychological care

This applies, in particular, in the case of

• anxieties after (repeated) failure
• churned up feelings after (early) miscarriages
• a lack of understanding between the couple which is slowly creeping in
• a difficult social environment
• decisions for or against (further) treatment
• deliberations regarding a possible adoption before the treatment.

The psychological treatment only marginally increases the prospects of pregnancy. However, it helps to a achieve a much more balanced and relaxed way of dealing with the stress of a fertility treatment.

A professional psychosocial and psychological consultation in the event of an unfulfilled desired to have children will strengthen and support you both during the treatment phase and during the “pregnancy” and the “letting go” phase.

Social workers and couple therapists will discuss an “overall concept relating to the desire to have children” and help them to achieve a sustainable attitude to life.
Here are some suggested contacts:

Christine Büchl (Graduate in Social Pedagogy):

Web: www.christine-buechl.de
E-mail: Christine.Buechl[at]t-online.de

Franziska Ferber: 

Web: www.kindersehnsucht.de
E-Mail: franziska.ferber[at]kindersehnsucht.de
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Bettina Klenke-Lüders  (Graduate in Political Science):

Web: www.kinderwunschberaterin.de
E-Mail: bkl[at]kinderwunschberaterin.de

German Consultancy Network for Involuntary Childlessness (BKiD):

Web: www.bkid.de

German Society for Systemic Therapy, Advice and Family Therapy (DGSF):

Web: www.dgsf.info

 The main assumptions of the psychological and medical advice in our fertility centre are:

• The couples desiring children are largely psychologically unremarkable and, therefore, do not require any psychotherapy, but only selective and freely chosen psychosocial support.
• The desire to have children does not have to be scrutinised and justified.
• Anxieties and depressive responses are interpreted as an adjustment disorder relating to the condition of reduced fertility and not as its cause.
• The relationship of the couple is the greatest psychological resource in a fertility treatment. The advice serves to get both partners to agree on all the decisions on the subject of the desire to have children and helps to overcome any difficulties in understanding and problems or – even better – stops them from arising in the first place.
• The advice ensures that the affected couple’s circle of friends and acquaintances is re-structured, as an unfulfilled desire to have children leads to a change in behaviour with the social environment.
• Psychological support assumes that the personal experience of a fertility treatment is determined both by the momentum of the IVF/ICSI treatment and by the individual attitudes of the affected people. A focus on results, feelings of unrest and uncertainty are typical for the treatment. However, an optimistic or pessimistic attitude to the treatment is the result of early impressions.
• The couples desiring children know that a decisive desire for children only ends when the woman reaches the menopause. As long as there is still physically a chance – even if it is only a small one – the desire for children cannot be be stamped out of a person’s mind.
• There is no exchange of knowledge between the medical and psychological care without our patients’ knowledge and consent.