Infertile couples complain about the time of uncertainty waiting for menses to occur or not. Women often report psychosomatic symptoms like nausea, bloated stomach, weight increase, breast tenderness, and drowsiness, as if they experience pregnancy. The onset of menses generates dysphoria. Artificial insemination with donor semen obliges the infertile couple to build a new concept of paternity. It does not really treat the man s sterility but only the lack of a child.
Many women report fantasies of adultery in spite of donor anonymity and confidentiality.
Couples often wonder if they should explain its origin to their child. Some of them cannot accept their infertility and maintaining secrecy is then a way to deny the disability. Others fear being rejected later by the child. Couples who choose adoption have the same doubts. Assisted reproduction has completely changed the medical and social representation of conceiving a child.