Reproductive Health & Fertility Counselling

Well Woman Counselling offers specialized counselling for the many challenges related to reproductive health & fertility, such as infertility, pregnancy loss, and postpartum depression.

Holly Yager (M.Ed., RCC, CCC) and Royce Dueck (M.Sc., RN, RPC) are counsellors in Vancouver, BC with specialized knowledge, training, and experience in reproductive health and fertility counselling. Holly and Royce are dedicated to helping women and their partners cope with reproductive health and fertility concerns, such as infertility, pregnancy loss, and postpartum depression.

Both Holly Yager and Royce Dueck provide psychotherapy, emotional support, tools for coping with stress using mind-body techniques, and hypnosis for fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, and labour.

In addition, Holly Yager is skilled in providing counselling related to the use of assisted reproductive technologies (IVF and IUI) and third-party reproduction (donor conception). Holly is a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Canadian Fertility & Andrology Society, and follow guidelines set by Assisted Human Reproduction Canada.

What is reproductive health counselling?

Reproductive health counselling addresses the emotional concerns and daily challenges related to hormones, the reproductive cycle, sexual health, and pregnancy. From puberty to menopause, women can spend approximately 30 years of their lives coping with issues related to reproductive health, whether it's trying to conceive, managing PMS symptoms, coping with recurrent miscarriage, or making the difficult decision to end a pregnancy. Reproductive health events are often perceived as major transitions in women's lives and can contribute to significant challenges in day-to-day functioning, in relationships, and in mental health and well-being.

During the course of a woman's lifetime:

• Postpartum depression will affect 10 to 20% of women
• Half a million Canadians (1 in 6 couples) are affected by infertility
• Up to 25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage for women under 35 (and over 40% for women over age 40)
• Approximately 35% of North American women will experience an abortion
• Up to 80% of women will experience PMS, and up to 8% of women will experience PMDD

Well Woman Counselling helps women and couples cope more effectively with:

• Infertility:
  • Coping with the stress of trying to conceive
  • Assisted reproductive technologies (IVF, IUI)
  • Third-party reproduction (egg and sperm donors)
  • Making the decision to keep trying, to adopt, or to be childless
• Perinatal and postpartum depression and anxiety
• Post-abortion support
• Pregnancy decision-making (pro-choice)
• Pregnancy loss:
  • Miscarriage, recurrent loss
  • Stillbirth
  • Late-term & genetics terminations
  • Abortion support
• Preparation for pregnancy, labour & childbirth, and parenting
• Relationship changes when trying to conceive and when becoming a parent
• Symptoms of menopause and perimenopause
• Symptoms of PMS/PMDD

Well Woman Counselling provides women and couples with the necessary support and tools to:

• Work through the grief of pregnancy loss due to miscarriage, stillbirth, or termination
• Adjust to relationship changes as a result of experiencing reproductive health challenges
• Decide how to proceed when faced with a diagnosis of an abnormal pregnancy
• Manage the commonly experienced increase in anxiety related to pregnancy or childbirth
• Cope with the stress and frustration of infertility and its treatments (ARTs)
• Recover from, or prevent, perinatal or postpartum depression
• Adjust to the emotional transition to motherhood and parenting
• Cope with the ups and downs of the adoption process
• Decide how to proceed with an unintended pregnancy
• Decide on when, or if, to have children