Fertility Counselling

Going through fertility treatment, can feel as though your life is on hold and it is hard to move forward or plan your future. Sometimes you feel as though you cannot confide in anyone who will understand what you are going through.

Counselling is an opportunity to explore any emotional difficulty, fears and anxieties, or distress that you might experience during your fertility journey. It can help you to cope, make choices, and change aspects of your situation. It doesn’t involve giving advice or direction to take a particular course of action; at times it may involve providing information.

Our fertility counsellors are here so you can express your emotions freely in a supportive environment.

Most do not feel the need for support counselling before or during their treatment, and some only access this when their treatment journey is finished. If you have issues raised during the completion of your Welfare of Child form (WOC), the HFEA mandates the clinic to take steps to ensure the health of the parents and of any children that may be born through treatment or of any existing children. In these circumstances we require you to see one of our counsellors to ensure that there is no risk from treatment.

For those undergoing treatment with donated sperm, eggs or embryos, the HFEA strongly recommends implications counselling especially if donation is through a donor known to the woman.

At North West Fertility we feel that the issues raised and discussed at implications counselling are so important and beneficial to couples and individuals that we insist that all patients undergo at least one satisfactory session of implications counselling before the donation process is started.

We offer one session of supportive counselling for free. If you wish to use an external counselling service there would be an additional cost.

Counsellors follow regulatory guidelines set out by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and the British Infertility Counselling Association (BICA). Information you disclose is confidential and will not be fed back to any other member of Northwest fertility staff, unless it causes concern about harm to yourself, others around you, or the welfare of the future child. In this instance, the counsellor will talk to you first, and find the best way forward

No, you can use your own chosen counselling or North West Fertility can offer you a choice of recommended counselling service providers.

If you require implications counselling this will need to be done through a BCCP accredited counsellor.

The traditional approach to counselling has been through the patient, partner or couple sitting with the counsellor in a comfortable and confidential environment and discussing issues which can only be provided in a clinic type setting during normal working hours. We recognise some are put off by this due to external pressures such as work commitments or the distance to the clinic. In order to facilitate this, counselling over Skype can be organised as an alternative to allow a more flexible approach to treatment.

You may find it useful to join a fertility support group or online forum for support such as those through Fertility Network UK or Fertility Friends.

You can self-refer to a counsellor at any stage of your treatment journey. Please visit our trusted counselling provider ‘Prickly Pear Therapy‘ to book an appointment online now. 

Alternatively, you can contact the clinic at any stage and request a referral. For patients requiring implications counselling, an appointment with the counsellor will be made as soon as you have decided to proceed with treatment and this should be completed before your main consultation.