Matrix for understanding perinatal psychic processes mediated by assisted reproductive technology

Abstract

This writing is the product of more than fifteen years of clinical work with patients who attend to medically assisted reproduction treatments, including our own clinical cases and those of other colleagues. Some of them compiled in the book “Wishes, children, technologies”, others developed in writings of my authorship in recent years. This clinical material has allowed me to develop a matrix of understanding of the psychological processes that women undergo throughout reproductive treatments, which includes a series of losses that are added to the psychic processing that occurs in natural pregnancies. This general matrix serves as a compass to guide us around some common elements that usually appear in reproductive treatments that last years. Having an ethical horizon of promotion and protection of the right to mental health of women facing reproductive treatments, we propose an interdisciplinary approach to medically assisted reproduction processes with a privileged heeding to singularity