What are ACCESS Options Groups?
ACCESS OPTIONS Groups focus on different infertility issues and provide relaxed contact between people going through similar experiences. Access to these groups is restricted to members of ACCESS. Click here for information on ACCESS membership.
How do I join a group?
You can join by talking to another member via email (or letter), over the phone or catching up over a coffee. It can be anonymous if you prefer.
It helps sometimes to know you’re not alone.
OPTIONS Contact Groups to link up with are:
Options when you’re on IVF treatment
Sometimes it can be good to speak to someone else who is going through a treatment cycle and understands the hopes and anxieties you can feel, especially during that dreaded two week wait post transfer! You may like contact by phone, email or even get together for coffee.
“It is very comforting to know that we are not alone in our “battle” to become pregnant. The only way for us to get assistance at this time is through ACCESS, as you know exactly what we are going through. Thank you so very much.”. – Irene
The ACCESS Options for Donor Conception group provides contact with people who are considering donor sperm, oocyte or embryo treatment or who are parents of donor offspring, to share their dreams and hopes and difficulties in becoming parents. The group also provides contact for adults and teenagers who know they were conceived using donated gametes (sperm or eggs) and for people who have donated gametes to another couple to help them have a family.
Options for those undergoing ART treatment with a genetic issue
This group is for couples who have a known risk for genetic disease and who need ART treatment to help them to achieve their dream of having a family. This group is an opportunity to help each other in that journey by sharing experiences and coping strategies. Contact can be via email, mail or phone, as you wish.
Options after IVF Miscarriage
When we suffer a miscarriage, often after many years of IVF treatment, we not only have to deal with the death of a much longed for child, but knowing that it took so much effort and commitment to conceive in the first place. This group provides contact between people who best understand this experience because they have been through it. People trying to decide if they want to stop treatment or keep going. Contact can be via email, mail or phone, as you wish.
“Other miscarriage groups were sympathetic but didn’t help as most of their members had children or seemed to get pregnant again within a few months. That wasn’t likely for us because we were infertile. We felt like we lived in a different world.” (KD NSW)
Options for Men Only
This group provides e-mail or phone contact between men to discuss their infertility experiences, to help alleviate the isolation and to break down the stigma sometimes felt by men undergoing ART treatment or who support women who may be infertile.
"The realisation that you are not alone, your feelings are normal and that you can chat about it all comes as a great relief - and it doesn’t mean you have to stop being a guy!" D.C. (NSW)
Options for Single Women
Single women may find that the only way to beat the biological clock is to have a family using assisted conception techniques. This group provides a point of contact for women who may have chosen this path and who feel they need some support or to have the understanding that they are not alone. Contact can be via email, mail or phone, as you wish.
"It would be great to establish a group for single women as there are some issues which are unique to having a child under these circumstances." T.M. (Vic)
Options for Approaching Life without Children
This group provides contact with childless people to talk about how to approach living without a child positively after efforts with medical treatment have failed. In facing the death of a dream to have a family, it can help to speak with others who understand what you’re going through. Contact can be via email, mail or phone, as you wish.
"Talking with others who share my experience, allows me to think that some good comes out of the pain." (A.M. Qld)
IVF Parents’ Options
For parents of children born through IVF who would like contact with other Mums and Dads or other children who can talk with other IVF kids. Parents can also talk about how they have shared having a child through IVF with their children. Contact can be via email, mail or phone, as you wish. As you get to know people you may also wish to meet socially.
Click here to make further enquiries on joining an options group. | 
OPTIONS GROUPS
