2024-02-15 10:46:25
February 15, 2024
In vitro fertilization is one of the elements of the medically assisted procreation (AMP) process, often taken by couples and single women in a context of infertility. If it represents an immense hope of finally having a child, this medical care is not without effect on the sexual life of the people concerned. In question, hormones and psychology.
One of the two elements causing the drop in libido in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) is the hormonal treatment itself. Indeed, for in vitro fertilization to be possible, it is important to stimulate in the woman “oocyte maturation and/or preparing the uterine mucosa for implantation of the embryo”, as recalled by the CPMA fertility center in Lausanne, Switzerland. To do this, she injects subcutaneously hormones which have the same function as those naturally produced by the body: follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). As a result, exposure to these substances can cause side effects, among them, variations in libido are well known.
But another cause is psychological. “Clinical research agrees to underline the deleterious impact of treatments on the sexuality of couples, particularly a reduction in desire, due to the intrusion of medicine into their sexual life”, reveals a document from the High Council of Public Health on the psychological experience of couples using ART. In details, “men can feel their virility called into question and subjected to demands for performance, women can experience a subordination of their sexual life to their desire for pregnancy, this one, sought mainly during the ovulatory period, thus losing its spontaneity and its hedonic quality, to the detriment of the couple relationship. » In particular, the systematic organization of sexual relations and the intrusion into their privacy by doctors and nursing staff into the couple’s sexuality are at issue.
How to prevent?
To prevent your libido from being affected, it is first essential to talk to your partner regarding it. “Do not hesitate to raise the problem of reduced desire, approach it without complacency while being well aware that denying it or burying it risks making you unhappy”insists the BAMP collective, an association of patients and ex-patients who have used medically assisted procreation.
Concretely, the objective is to find ways to maintain a carnal and sensual bond between the couple on a regular basis and outside of the desire for pregnancy. To ritualize moments together, just for fun. For example, you can give yourself massages, be more tactile on a daily basis, with gestures like holding hands. In short, it is regarding finding the path to tenderness, through gentle words, looks, caresses. Tenderness will lead you to rediscover sexual pleasure together.
And of course if necessary, you can also get help. “In most PMA centers, psychological support units have been set up to support all those who are engaged in these processes”indicates the BAMP collective.
Source: High Council of Public Health – CPMA fertility center in Lausanne – Toulouse University Hospital – BAMP Collective
Written by: Dominique Salomon – Edited by: Emmanuel Ducreuzet
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