[Fertility, endometriosis and pregnancy planning]

Endometriosis does not always mean infertility, and treatment depends on the couple's prognosis and their wishes. Spontaneous pregnancy remains possible, all the more so if endometriosis treatment is initiated early in the patient's life. Surgery and assisted reproduction are available to couples who wish to have a child.

[Humanizing care in medically assisted reproduction]

Medically assisted reproduction is forty years old. Since the summer of 2021, care is no longer reserved for heterosexual couples only, but is extended to female couples and single women. This societal evolution, which has been debated at length, has highlighted the need to rethink the organization of care. Long stigmatized and trying, they have a strong impact on the life trajectories of patients, leaving traces that can have an impact on their parentality.

[Accessing parenthood in a transgender context]

Becoming a father is a process that covers different situations. In addition to the well-known situations of traditional conception and sperm donation, there are others that need to be considered. These situations concern in particular access to parenthood for transgender men who have made a social transition.

[Born as a result of a donation, unknown origins]

Raphaël was conceived in 1976 by donor insemination. He describes his experience of the late discovery of his conception. Not being able to know his sperm donor and being denied access to his origins prevents him from being able to fully fathom the unknown part of him in order to shape his own person.

["We are experiencing the best time of our lives, as we are expecting a baby."]

Following a diagnosis of infertility, Claire and Michael decided to explore the option of medically assisted reproduction. They share their journey, their experience and their suffering on this long and difficult pathway towards pregnancy.

[Gamete donation and parenthood]

Today many heterosexual couples, as well as single women and lesbian couples, use gamete donation in France or abroad in order to fulfil their desire for a child. The construction of parenthood in these conditions raises many questions and requires specific psychological work in order to reflect on issues surrounding genetic transmission, the establishment of the bond and the appropriation of parenthood. Furthermore, what is the future of the children conceived by donation?

[Alternative medicines in medically assisted reproduction]

Many patients undergoing medically assisted reproduction turn to alternative medicines such as acupuncture, sophrology or osteopathy in order to help them fulfil their desire for a child. What do these techniques consist in? What are their physical and psychological benefits? This article provides some explanations.

[The psychological challenges of MAR]

The difficulties in becoming parents and the medical process undertaken to achieve it can cause major suffering in the people confronted with these situations. Psychological support may then be necessary to comfort the couple and support it through the different stages of the MAR process. It also enables the pair as a whole, and as individuals, to understand what is at stake, in relation to their own history, in the inability to fulfil this desire for a child.

[Construction of parenthood and medically assisted reproduction]

In situations of medically assisted reproduction (MAR), some questions face the future parents which may impact on the construction of the bond with their child. These challenges mean that the support provided needs to go further than the simple technical response. Supporting those seeking reproduction assistance and those who have become parents with their child, as they are, where they are at with their desire for a child and their baby, constitutes the main challenge of clinical interviews in MAR.

[MAR: current and future practices with the review of the law on bioethics]

Medically assisted reproduction techniques are aimed at heterosexual couples, when both members are living, of reproductive age, consenting to acts of insemination or the transfer of embryos and presenting medically diagnosed infertility. The review of the law on bioethics could offer new perspectives for reproduction notably by allowing access to medically assisted reproduction (MAR) to all women, elective egg freezing, the lifting of gamete donor anonymity and the authorisation of post-mortem MAR.

[Medically assisted reproduction: what relationship between the couple and the doctor?]

Undertaking medically assisted reproduction (MAR) is a real ordeal for a couple. Beyond the technical aspect, the physician must also support this patients psychologically and acknowledge their distress. The doctor's first mission is to advise the couple who will remain the sole decision-maker with regard to the actions undertaken.