The condition of infertility It is considered as a strong personal stress as it inevitably produces an impact both on operation and sexual health.
In the event that the couple present difficulties related to their fertility, the experience of sexual intimacy risks being lived in an altered way by both partners. If focused exclusively on procreation, the sex life of the couple can become methodical and predictable to the point of losing the value of communication, intimacy and sharing.
In case of male infertilitymen tend to live less virile while, in case of female infertility, women live less feminine and incomplete. The common feelings related to infertility, such as anger, fault, despair, depression, shame and anxiety can interfere with the feelings of warmth, affection and emotional sharing that are the natural prerequisites of a satisfactory sexual encounter.
The relationship between sexual activity And infertility is very complex. In fact, if sexual dysfunctions can cause infertility, psychological difficulties can also prevent normal sexual activity.
In some cases, infertility highlights sexual or couple problems already present for a long time and pre -existing to diagnosis of infertility; In other cases, the sexual difficulties for infertile couples are the result of programmed sex, the pressure of giving a performance on request, of the psychological presence of medical staff and the reproductive performance pressure experienced by the infertile couple.
In other cases still, the sexual dysfunctions They could be a symptom of couple’s relational problems and in these cases the use of medically assisted procreation techniques (PMA) could represent the “shortcut” that leads to reproduction and parenting without having to face the relationship and sexual problems existing in the couple relationship.
It is equally important to consider that relying on PMA treatments can favor one split between sexuality and reproductionthoroughly the emotional, emotional and sexual distancement between the partners and, therefore, it is important to help the couple to keep these two aspects together and not to give up their intimate relational dimension.
In female experience, reproduction and sexuality are often more intrinsically intertwined than for men.
Only recently the attention of literature has focused on the incidence and type of sexual dysfunctions In infertile couples, on the impact that infertility can have on the sexual life of women and men and on the impact that specific diagnoses of infertility and the related treatments can have on the sexual life of the individual partners and the couple.
The causes of sexual dysfunctions in infertile couples can be divided into:
• masked psychosexual problems such as cases of infertility;
• incidental discoveries of psychosexual disorders in cases of infertility;
• Infertility that causes psychosexual problems.
The sexual dysfunctions Municipalities in infertile couples, deriving from the stress of medical treatment, include problems such as the loss of desire and anorgasmia.
In fact, medical treatment seems to increase the feelings of loss of control, intimacy and self -esteem and involves a drop in desire Until compromising the response and sexual activity.
It is therefore very important, in the context of the consultancy for infertility, a multidisciplinary approach that also considers the relational and sexual aspects of the infertile couple, differentiating the problems related to treatment from those deriving from pre -existing difficulties in the couple relationship.
It is also essential to carefully evaluate together with the couple the advantages and disadvantages of the medical protocol in terms of potential resolution or possible exacerbation of the sexual difficulties.
The evaluation of these implications directs the diagnosis and identification of an adequate therapeutic approach. Infertile couples can benefit from the availability of psychological support before, during and after their diagnostic-therapeutic path.
The sexological intervention is particularly useful and effective in those cases where the couple’s sexual difficulties have become a primary source of individual and couple stress.
However, it is desirable to leave large and free space for the discussion on sexuality even for those couples in which sexuality does not seem to be a clinical topic of central importance; In fact, minimizing this space can strengthen the impression that sexuality must be separated from any form of intervention aimed at their fertility in couples.
