Infertility counselling has multidisciplinary approach. 

There are different areas in infertility counselling, which when handled well, improve the results of infertility treatment on you:

· Psychotherapy

· Reproductive medicine 

· Genetic

· Use of support groups 

· Family therapy

According to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) a Post-Graduate in Social science, Medicine, Psychology or any staff of clinic who is fully aware of infertility related disorders & dilemmas can do such counselling. 

What is the aim of Psychological counselling?

Psychological counselling is one of the facets of infertility counselling. It looks at healing your emotional aspect. 

A lot of couples with infertility problem treat this as life crisis, provoking mental illnesses like anxiety, confusion and mental agony. It can easily cause mental, emotional, spiritual, cultural, moral and ethical problems to face and live in the society. It is very important not to hold oneself responsible for these problems. Before the start of IVF treatment, you will need to leave the guilt and self-accusation and be open to counseling by experts to alley your fears and infuse positive thinking and confidence.

At Akruti IVF, the counselling, is done to provide your following benefits:

· Normalize infertility experience 

· Improve couple’s relationship 

· Help you manage your stress 

· Assist in goal setting decision making 

· Separating infertility from self esteem 

· Promote acceptance 

· Acknowledge the losses

· Facilitate grief 

· Promote responsibility

· Plan therapeutic session 

This management of psychological factors helps in improving results of infertility couple. 

What are the aims of medical counselling? 

Medical counselling is one of the facets of infertility counselling. Its objective is to keep you appraised of treatments and tests you have to undergo for infertility treatment. It covers following:

· Technology details which are used during management like Ultrasound /Laparoscopy.

· Build acceptability of tests included in treatment plan. 

· Metabolic disorders & management. 

· Medical disorders & infections like HIV /HBS Ag /HCV. 

· Malignancies eg cancer. How do they affect fertility.

· Uterine defects & associated pathologies of tubes & ovaries. 

· Male factor. 

Steps of counselling 

· Pre-treatment counselling

· During treatment

· Post treatment

Pre-treatment counselling

· A counsellor outlines an individual plan for evaluation, treatment & timeline for you. 

· Documents everything and shares education material.

· Arranges a supports group of patients who faced this problem and were able to come out of it. 

· Provides correct information about treatment, side effects, cost & results. 

· Gives the details of the general infertility procedures like IUI, IVF, ICSI.

· Informs you about special procedures like TESE/TESA, PESA, Micro-TESA /Egg donation /embryo donation/Cryofreezing /surrogacy & adoption if you require them or are interested to know.

· If you are a male undergoing counselling, then you are provided details of semen analysis test, Sperm Function Analysis (SFA) test for DNA, sperm donation & sperm procedures like MACS and IMSI.

During the entire process we ensure not to make any tall claims and set false expectations. 

During treatment

· Information about hormonal drugs & it’s side effects. 

· Details of anaesthesia & procedures done on day to day basis. 

· Blood investigations that you need to undergo and their purpose. 

· Time taken for each of the treatments. 

· Options available for freezing your eggs /embryos / semen. 

· Number of embryos to be transferred. 

· Alert you for Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS) which may occur for patients suffering from PCOD. In this case ovaries swell and become painful.

Post treatment

· Rest & diet 

· Sexual relationship 

· Drugs & its side effects 

· Psychotherapy with stress management methods like meditation, music therapy, acupuncture, reiki & yoga. 

· Spiritual counselling 

· Preparing with good mental strength for negative results 

What does the counsellor do for you? 

· Empathise in your grief & loss. 

· Build hope, if a cycle fails dues to complications.

· Support group-share experience with other patients 

· Keeps you posted about any post conception problems at the starting of your cycle and gives complete counselling in case negative results.

· Provide you information about sperm bank, egg bank, embryo bank & surrogacy as an alternate option.

· Counsels you about doing Genetic tests like PGD/PGS in advance if you face repeated failures. 

Benefits you get from counselling

· Builds up healthy relationship between you and your doctor

· You feel involved in decision making process 

· You are better equipped to receive the treatment 

· You don’t feel cheated because you are given complete and correct information.

Conclusion 

Counselling of infertility couple has a major important role in getting successful results. It does help to have faith in the ones treating you. That ways, all factors including physical & mental health get tackled. 

Given the immense benefits it provide, it’s been included as a part of the treatment and not charged separately.

The counsellor at Akruti IVF provide healthy environment & and detailed knowledge, which prepares you mentally for the road ahead and relieves you of a lot of your stress during treatment.

You also get all the idea of complications and are ready to face the even the negative results courageously.

You get a counselling program for both physical & psychological aspect of patient along with cost involved in both procedures & medication 

As a result, you are treated successfully with high rate of conception, because you have reduced anxiety levels.