Riding the edge of their personal limits, infertility patients push their doctors, who often find it hard to push back.

In addition, infertility patients must give approval before unused embryos can be used for stem cell research.

To the Editor: Your Dec. 14 front-page article on infertility patients mentions the suspected link between lack of success in conceiving and depression.

But some people in the medical business and others who look out for the needs of infertility patients are troubled.

Serono provides Fertility LifeLines as a free and confidential source of information to infertility patients.

Dr. Taylor also recommends relaxation to his infertility patients.

Aetna has been under pressure recently from Wall Street investors to reduce costs and increase profits, but the decision was criticized by doctors and advocates for infertility patients.

But increasingly these experts are finding that they must pay attention to the most fundamental and low-tech of issues, the emotional health of their infertility patients.

"I can tell you that the program changed my life," said Lisa, an infertility patient who attended the mind/body program now offered at Boston IVF.

As an infertility patient, I hear stories that make me cry with sympathy.