Sixteen Years of Fertility Expertise in Abidjan

Some projects are born from a simple conviction: that the quality of healthcare should not depend on geography. When Clinique Notre Dame de la Tendresse opened its doors in Abidjan in 2010, that conviction guided every decision — from the equipment chosen to the team assembled, the protocols adopted, and the way patients were welcomed.

Sixteen years on, that conviction has not changed. What has changed is the capacity to put it into practice.

A Vision: Making ART Accessible

The clinic was created to address a real and documented need. In West Africa, couples seeking access to assisted reproductive treatment often had no choice but to travel abroad. That medical journey — costly and exhausting — was not within everyone's reach.

The founding ambition was to build, progressively, a structure capable of providing locally what did not yet exist: first, specialist consultations; then comprehensive investigations; then the opening of an IVF laboratory. A step-by-step development model that allowed solid foundations to be laid at each stage.

Today, the clinic offers a complete pathway — from an initial fertility consultation through to the most advanced ART techniques — without patients having to leave their country.

A Multidisciplinary Team

Fertility is a field where medicine alone is not enough. An ART journey draws on a wide range of expertise, and the quality of care depends directly on how well those different professionals work together.

The team at Clinique Notre Dame de la Tendresse brings together reproductive gynaecologists and obstetricians specialised in ART, reproductive biologists responsible for the IVF laboratory, midwives trained in the follow-up of medically assisted pregnancies, dietitians and nutritionists — because diet plays a genuine role in fertility — and mental health professionals available to patients who are navigating difficult moments.

This holistic approach reflects a deep conviction: treating fertility means accompanying a whole person, not just a symptom or an organ.

Commitment to Quality

The clinic's IVF laboratory runs its procedures to the ISO 9001:2015 standard, as part of a certification programme now under way. What we are working towards is not an honorary distinction — it is a way of working already in place: sample traceability, equipment qualification, deviation management, and continuous improvement.

For patients, this means that every step of the laboratory process is documented and verified. It is a concrete form of transparency in a field where trust is fundamental.

Training: The Next Step

After sixteen years of intensive clinical practice, a new dimension has gradually asserted itself as a necessity: the transmission of knowledge.

In West Africa, the number of physicians specialised in reproductive medicine remains insufficient relative to demand. Training healthcare professionals already in practice — doctors, midwives, gynaecologists — in the methods and protocols of the fertility consultation means multiplying the impact of accumulated expertise far beyond a single clinic.

A structured training programme, designed for healthcare professionals, launches in 2026. It is built to be practical, grounded in African clinical realities, and accessible to practitioners working across very different contexts.

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Sixteen years is both a great deal and very little. It is enough to have built deep clinical experience and a thorough understanding of fertility realities in West Africa. Yet it is also too little to be satisfied with what has been achieved, given how significant the remaining needs are and how much progress is still possible.

What does not change is the way each patient who walks through the clinic's doors is met: with the same attentiveness, the same respect, and the same determination to support them as well as possible on their path to parenthood — whether this is their first consultation or the latest step in a long journey.