Issues involved in the decision to end infertility treatment: When is enough enough?

Abstract

As infertility treatment continues to provide more options to couples and individuals who wish to conceive, the decision of when to end treatment falls increasingly on the patient rather than the physician. Often this decision is made more difficult by conflicting emotions and information received by the individual or couple. The pressure to continue treatment may be perceived as coming from partners, parents, cultural expectations, or medical professionals. When a couple or individual decides to end treatment, it may be to go on to alternative parenthood options such as adoption, surrogacy, or donor gametes. Conversely, the decision to end infertility treatment may result in the difficult decision to live child-free. Regardless of what course the couple elects to follow, the actual decision to stop is ultimately bound up in the individual's ability to relinquish the hope and dream of having his or her own genetic child. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.