Third-Party Reproduction.
I provide psychological evaluation and assessment of candidates for oocyte donation, gestation carriers, and offer consultations for oocyte recipients and intended parents. I offer consultations for singles parents by choice and couples who are considering their building options through third-party reproduction options such as oocyte donation, embryos donation, sperm donation, egg freezing, and building family through gestational carrier.
Oocyte Recipient consultation?
I offer consultations to women and couples who are considering building their family through gamete donations.
During consultations we will explore complex psychological implications of gamete donations including disclosure to the future child, your feelings about conceiving thought donated gamete, and your reproductive history.
We will address any concerns that you and your partner might have and I will provide psychoeducation about the process and its psychological implications.
Gestation Carrier Prospective Intended Parents consultation
I offer consultations for couples who are considering building their family through gestational carrier.
During this meeting we will explore your expectations about the process, possible difficulties you might face, long-term implications and psychological effect as well as discuss your preparedness.
Gestation Carrier and Intended parent assessment and evaluation.
Building your family through gestation carrier might be the best family option for you.
Once you decide to go through the process, I will walk along you and provide psychoeducational meeting during which will discuss multiple aspects of this option such as what kind of relationship with GI are you comfortable with, how many embryos are you wanting to transfer, and many other things.
Gestation Carrier/Surrogacy…
In order to ensure potential gestation carrier safety, the ASRM guidelines recommend thorough psychological evaluation and psychological testing to be conducted prior to admitting the person into the program. The process being with the initial structured clinical interview, during which background information is collected such as psychosocial and reproductive history, relational history, etc.
Meeting with the spouse might be necessary where we discuss the potential emotional and practical issues pertaining to the process such as GI going through the IVF cycle, pregnancy, delivery and postpartum periods.
The candidate is asked to complete Personality Assessment Inventory, it is a multi-scale test of psychological functioning that assesses personality and psychopathology. The test consists of 344 items and requires about 60 minutes to be completed. Once the data from both the psychological evaluation and completed test is analyzed, the report is composed and the candidate is briefed on the results and the follow up appointment for a consultation is made.
The third part of the process is conjoint meeting with the gestation carrier candidate and intended parents. During this meeting psychoeducation is provided to both parties and common ground on issues like the level of closeness, particular expectations, handling conflict, involved risks, and other concerns are discussed.
Oocyte Donations…
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine guidelines recommend for every potential oocyte donor to go through a psychological consultation and a psychological evaluation. The ASRM states that “gamete donation is more than a transfer of gametes from one party to another. It… involves a complex interchange of emotions and psychological needs of donor, recipient, offspring, and, potentially, the donor’s family”.
Donor psychological evaluation consists of clinical interview and psychological assessment. In order to ensure donor safety and avoid psychological harm, potential gamete donor receives a comprehensive psychoeducation about the process of oocyte donation and its psychological and mental health implication including medical risks of donation and the process, degree of disclosure of personal information, prospects of future identification/contact, compatibility of donor’s desires with the programs policies.
During clinical interview family history, educational background, psychiatric history, relationships, coping skills, sexual and reproductive history, current stressors, and motivation to donate are assessed in order to ensure donation is voluntary and the candidate will not endure any psychological harm.
The personality inventories are standardized tests designed and validated to assess personality characteristics. At Koba Psychological Services, we use Personality Assessment Inventory, it is a multi-scale test of psychological functioning that assesses personality and psychopathology. The test consists of 344 items and requires about 60 minutes to be completed. Once the data from both the psychological evaluation and completed test is analyzed, the report is composed and sent to the agency or physician. I offer a debrief session during which the results are discussed and any follow up information is gathered.
Let’s work together
Please email or call me at 424 256 0160 for your free, 20-minute consultation to see how my approachcan help you through this stage.