Evaluation of infertility counselling in Germany

Abstract

Purpose: This paper reports on the first evaluation of infertility counselling in Germany.

Methods: Sixty-nine infertility counsellors provided feedback via 524 survey sheets and 182 questionnaires were filled in by clients.

Results: The results show a high level of satisfaction on behalf of the clients. They valued the emotional support, information, and exploration of family-building options with and without medical assistance and the counsellors' expertise. During counselling, coping with the emotional burden of infertility was an important issue, but in more than half of all counselling sessions, future parental issues were addressed. The group of clients seeking support can be described to be very heterogeneous, and counselling issues comprise a wide range of aspects.

Conclusions: This piece of research suggests that the following issues need to be considered to improve infertility counselling. Better integration of counselling in infertility clinics, more awareness for infertility counselling for other medical and non-medical professions Better funding for counselling so that its uptake is not dependent upon the financial resources of clients Awareness for new groups of clients and counselling issues such as single and transgender individuals, co-parenting families There is a need for more research and the development of counselling concepts.

Keywords: Desire for a child; Evaluation; Germany; Infertility counselling; Psychosocial.