Our daily helplessness: its presence and experience in the outpatient operation room of the Assisted Reproduction Clinic.

Abstract

Objective: To identify the feeling of helplessness in assisted reproduction patients, along with the experience in the out patient surgical center of an assisted reproduction clinic.

Methods: A prospective study of care and psychological interventions performed in the outpatient surgical center (OSC) of the assisted reproduction clinic from January 2019 to December 2022. Patients are first seen by the nursing staff. After an interview with the anesthesiologist and the attending physician, the psychotherapist presents herself and asks consent for listening/speaking, before, during and after the procedure.

Results: 1011 interviews were performed by the psychotherapist, which correspond to 47% of 2149 OSC procedures performed in the clinic during the study period. The psychotherapist was present in 595 IVF/ICSI (60%) of 1,000 procedures and 110 from 396 oocyte cryopreservation (28%), 306 (41%) from 753 transfers. The patients' observations were written in their medical records. Relevant points were shared and discussed with the staff directly.

Conclusions: The patients' speeches addressed to the psychotherapist or to the multidisciplinary team in this environment contains the utterance of their feelings, conscious and unconscious, that affect their psyche. So, the feeling of helplessness, expressed and enunciated in the statements and conducts of patients as well as the team, may go unnoticed and not receiving the necessary care. In the OSC environment they are confronted with the reality that they would so much like to avoid, that is, to use the AR technique to achieve an unconsummated desired- pregnancy.