Dear Sir and Madam,
Until now, your gynecologist has used diverse methods to evaluate and treat the your couple's infertility. He or she has discussed your test results with you numerous times and, better than anyone else, knows the distress this unrealized desire for a child represents for you.
Your physician has advised you to enroll in the in vitro fertilization (IVF) program conducted by the Centre de Procréation Médicalement Assistée (Center for Medically Assisted Procreation, known by its French acronym CPMA) at the Université de Liège. We will remain in close contact with him/her because we consider it essential that he/she be kept abreast of your follow-up in our Center.
The objective of this website is to help you to better understand fertility disorders and the treatments developed at CPMA. Herein, we have emphasized all the practical aspects of our work. During your consultation, the CPMA gynecologist will give you all the necessary information concerning your situation and, at that time, you will be able to ask all the questions that come to mind. Don't hesitate to discuss any difficulty that might in some way destabilize your personal, social or financial situation.
During the course of your treatment, you will come in contact with a team of doctors, biologists, nurses and technicians, whose primary preoccupation is to unravel the intricate factors impeding the extremely precise mechanism of fertilization and embryonic development. Each team member has a specialty and function. So don't be surprised to encounter many different team members throughout your treatment.
Others have joined our team because we consider it essential that you benefit from competent and dynamic psychological support to help you overcome the difficulties encountered in this context. For these treatments to succeed, regardless of the final outcome, psychological preparation is sometimes necessary. Questions may arise concerning the evolution of your life. Should you feel the need, you can meet with one of the CPMA psychologists. In addition, a support group, 'Giving Voice to IVF', under the direction of our different specialists, meets every month to help you find and tap into the resources necessary to surmount and understand the difficulties you are experiencing.
Finally, it is important to point out that medically assisted procreation does not provide easy solutions. There is not, in your desire to have a child, not more that in our technical undertaking, a key in hand to open this door. And the success rate may appear unsatisfactory in your eyes, compared to the personal and financial investment that these treatments impose. A child is a promise of life and a medically assisted procreation program, as effective as it can be, in no way changes the reality: a child is a formidable investment of love and a wager on the future that are the personal experiment undertaken by every parent. All proceeds as if the techniques at our disposal assure a better arrival of this child, with no one being able to guarantee such an event.
Take the time to visit our website. It contains practical information that can help you cope throughout your long treatment. We wish you an experience as serene and enriching as possible at CPMA, and, while remaining available to help you in any way that we can, we offer our most sincere hope for success in your undertaking.
Professor Jean Michel FOIDART
Département de Gynécologie-Obstétrique de l'Université de Liège, Belgium
