Silvia Azaña, embryologist at inviTRA, tells us in this video what men can do to get more involved in assisted reproduction treatment:
The female partner demands a significant portion of the focus when the couple visits a fertility clinic. In general, she will undergo further testing. Furthermore, she will also be the one who has to administer the hormone medication, attend more medical checkups and tests, and even undergo surgery if the reproductive treatment requires it.
However, during an assisted reproduction treatment, it is important that both members of the couple feel involved in every single step of the process, since it is a shared project. This is particularly crucial when planning to undergo a fertility treatment involving donor sperm, as the male partner might feel even more displaced.
In this regard, to ensure that both parties feel involved in the process, recommendations such as the following can be followed:
- Go through all stages of the treatment together, as far as possible: attend all appointments and checkups as a couple, assist the woman with administering the hormone medication, also look at the pregnancy test results together...
- Taking care of your relationship. It's important to be together at every step of the treatment, but also to do things that distract you so that you don't always have your mind on the same thing. It's important that the couple keeps doing the things that bring them the most enjoyment.
- Make the important decisions together. To converse with mutual respect, maintain a fluid conversation with your partner and reach a decision between the two of you. Talk honestly about all the emotions that reproductive treatment generates in order to understand each other and avoid misunderstandings.
- Be present, hug each other, have details... so that the partner feels supported.
- Attend specialized couples psychological counseling if it is considered necessary, as many fertility clinics currently provide this service. By doing this, both of you will be able to learn strategies to manage the situation emotionally.
This increases the couple's well-being. The relationship can even emerge strengthened from having both felt like participants in the search for their baby.
