The comfort and discomfort of infertility

Infertility has been described as a life crisis by many authors. Nursing has a major role in assisting couples through the infertility diagnosis and treatment regimen. The role of nurses is expanding as technologic advances expand and families are created using donor eggs, donor sperm, expanded male infertility techniques, host uteri, and preimplantation genetic diagnosis. A framework for nurses to use to provide comfort in infertility is provided, as are suggestions regarding nursing interventions to assist infertile patients through the physical, social, psychospiritual, and environmental contexts. The couple using advanced reproductive technologies proceeds through the stages of grief to, it is hoped, resolution. Kolcaba's matrix can be used as a framework for nursing interventions to move couples along the continuum of ease, relief, and transcendence.