Roberta Spoletini

In Italy from 2015 to 2022, couples undergoing ART treatment with gamete donation are steadily increasing. This choice may have a negative impact on their personal and relational well-being. The aim of this study was to explore the emotional experience of couples undergoing gamete donation assisted reproduction treatment (ART). An online ad-hoc survey with 25 questions (1 open-ended) was emailed to the physicians in charge of Italian ART centers. Physicians and psychologists invited patients undergoing ART with gamete donation to complete it. The survey ran from May to December 2023. A total of 256 questionnaires were completed. Among respondents, 87.5% underwent an egg donation cycle, while the remainder used sperm donation or double donation. About 90% reported being informed about psychological support services at the ART center, yet only half attended at least one session. Women more often reported emotions such as "sadness," "fear," and "anger," while men expressed more "joy." "Sadness" was more pronounced in individuals trying to conceive for less than 3 years. The emotional complexity of patients emerges from the writings. Some patients' characteristics appear to influence their emotional state. Being female, not receiving psychological counseling at the ART center, and spending less time attempting to conceive are conditions associated with greater negative emotions toward oneself or one's partner. A thematic qualitative analysis of patient narratives reveals several topics that reflect the emotional complexity of these patients. The emerging results may inspire the design of future psychological interventions focusing on the emotional needs of ART patients undergoing ART treatment with gamete donation.

Infertility may have a very strong emotional impact on individuals, requiring adequate support, but few studies on patients' demands toward psychological support have been conducted. This study aims to explore the emotions related to the infertility and to the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) procedure for which patients consider useful a psychological support. A total of 324 women completed a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire and an open-ended questionnaire on emotional needs for psychological support. The written texts were explored by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) programme and linguistic characteristics were related to sociodemographic and anamnestic variables. Specific linguistic features were connected to several individual characteristics. More specifically, differences in linguistic processes emerged comparing women with an age over or under 40 years, women undergoing their first attempts versus more attempts, women undergoing ART with or without gamete donation, and women undergoing ART for male or unknown causes, as well as those undergoing ART for female or both partners’ problems. These differences seem to confirm that older age, more attempts, gamete donation, and ART for unknown or male causes are risk factors that may worsen women's psychological well-being. This study contributes to increase the knowledge about the emotional needs of patients undergoing an ART procedure to develop specific psychological intervention programs.

Introduction. Infertility has an impact on the psychophysical health of individuals and couples, and its treatment through an assisted reproductive technology (ART) is a very exacting experience. The aim of this study was to explore the characteristics of psychological counselling services in Italian ART centres through a specially designed questionnaire administered to the physicians in charge of the centres. Methods. The questionnaire online was sent to 306 ART authorized centres. It consisted of 26 questions. A total of 15 were single-selection questions, 5 were multiple-choice and the remaining 6 were open-ended. Results. 113 (37%) ART centres responded to the questionnaire. All the ART centres offered psychological counselling, but only in 47% of them the psychologist is a permanent staff member. In 69% of the centres, 10 to 20% of couples use the psychological counselling service. Discussion. Although the Italian Guidelines under Law 40/2004 stress the need to provide couples with psychological support and counselling and the literature highlights the efficacy of such interventions, the results of our study show that psychological counselling services are not yet fully operational in Italian ART centres or integrated into their day-to-day medical practice. Conclusion. In conclusion, the results show that psychological services in Italian ART centres are not yet fully operational and integrated in the ART procedure. All of this highlights the importance of further investigations with the aim to shared information to use to establish common protocols for psychological interventions in ART centres.

Ethanol is the most widely used drug in the world and a human teratogen whose consumption among women of childbearing age has been steadily increasing. There are no Italian or Spanish statistics on ethanol consumption during pregnancy nor any information regarding prevalence of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). There is also a reasonable suspicion that these two diseases are underdiagnosed by professionals from the above-reported countries. The objectives of this study were: 1) to evaluate the experience, knowledge and confidence of Italian and Spanish neonatologists and paediatricians with respect to the diagnosis of FAS and FASD, and 2) to evaluate professionals awareness of maternal drinking patterns during pregnancy.