Psychology of infertility and assisted reproductive treatment: the Italian situation

Abstract

The aim of this work is to propose a brief comment about the role of psychology in the cases of infertility and assisted reproductive treatments with particular reference to the Italian situation.

Keywords:

• Psychology
• infertility
• assisted reproductive technologies

Disclosure statement

The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper. No specific funding was obtained.

Current knowledge on the subject

• In Italy, according to the data of the Ministry of Health, about 30% of couples are affected by infertility so about 100,000 couples a year in our country has fertility problems.

• The law 40/2004, “Rules on medically assisted procreation”, states that infertile couples can resort to medically assisted procreation if there are no other effective therapies to solve the causes of infertility.

• The importance of psychological support and counseling for couples with infertility problems has been underlined by the Health Council of Italy.

What this study adds

• We highlight some important aspects about the topic.

• We underline the importance of psychological support for infertile couples.

• We suggest that psychological support should become an integral part of infertility treatment in Italy.