As medical advances over the last two decades have enabled more childless people to initiate conception and to become parents, this book examines the increasingly crucial role of counselling for those who seek help with fertility problems.

With the practitioner specifically in mind, Jane Read presents clear, step-by-step guidelines which follow the counselling process from the initial phase of 'facing the key issues' through 'facing the loss', to the final stage of 'facing the future'. The most appropriate forms of counselling at each point are discussed and illustrated with carefully-chosen examples drawn from the author's own experience of working with couples and individuals.

The book also sets fertility counselling in a wider context, looking at the related topics of sexuality and abortion as well as the potential psychological implications for donors.

While the emotional needs of those presenting for and undergoing fertility treatment have been acknowledged, they have usually come second to the task of correcting the infertility and achieving a pregnancy. Counselling for Fertility Problems, however, recognises those needs while aiming to give them the priority, the attention and the help they deserve.