Overcoming infertility in an age of assisted reproductive technologies

In: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/1000

Abstract

This study explores women's experiences of infertility in an age of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). This study was directed at trying to understand the decision-making process surrounding motherhood, infertility and ARTs. This research uses in-depth, semi-structured interviews to elicit women's subjective experiences of the decision-making process surrounding infertility. This study also uses a structural analysis to understand how women's decisions are context dependent. More specifically, this study shows how the social, political and economic context of this society alienates women from their reproductive lives. This research adds in-depth descriptive data on women's experiences of infertility to the current knowledge on this issue. I interviewed 15 women who were at various stages of their infertility experience and who had not all pursued medical intervention to achieve pregnancy. The interviews focussed on the various reasons why women want children and why they would, or would not seek ARTs to achieve this goal. This study is unique in that the women described all of the options available to them as alienating. This research shows that society has left many infertile women with little choice over the decisions surrounding their reproductive lives.