Currently there are no guidelines for the targeting of HTLV-1 screening of couples requesting inclusion in an assisted fertility programme. These can be drawn up only if there is a multidisciplinary input allowing for specialist advice on the quantification of risk in the target populations offered help with fertility both in mainland France and the Antilles or French Guyana.In units offering Assisted Reproductive Technics (ART) targeted screening which might reveal a requirement for specific medical management, presents the opposing problems of the need for exhaustive questioning of the couple and that of non-discrimination. If screening is arranged to take place before the couple is taken on for assisted reproduction, then the good practice which is currently recommended and applied for HIV, is a suitable reference model. It remains to define the expected benefits in this branch of medicine where medical responsibility in assisted conception is already highly regulated. Moreover, if any measures are applied in the context of assisted reproduction, this would suggest that similar guidelines should be established for natural conception.