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Not surprisingly, since the advent of the first test tube baby in 1978, media attention to infertility has increased dramatically. With an increase in the technologies available to overcome female infertility, Americans have come to define infertility as a medical problem, and infertile couples often turn to the medical profession for solutions. Sociologists often use the term “medicalization” to describe any process in which certain behaviors come to be understood as questions of health and illness, subject to the authority of medical institutions. As infertility has become medicalized, medical institutions and medical world views supply a major context shaping infertile couples’ experiences. Infertility is described in medical language, it is treated in medical institutions, and sufferers are regarded as patients (Greil, 1991).

Parenthood, Women and Infertility

In American Society, parenthood is seen as an integral part of the transition into adult status. It is relatively easy to document that in a social context, parenthood is normative and childlessness is deviance. Many sociologists assert that it is not simply parenthood but biological parenthood that is defined as normal. Media coverage of adoptees , who are continually searching for their “real” parents reinforces this notion that a normal parent is a biological parent. The infertile see their condition as stigmatized by society at large: the belief that the causes of infertility are psychological rather than physical, the association of infertility with sexual incompetence, and the assumption that infertility is basically a woman’s problem. For most wives, infertility brings with it a deep sense of personal failure, and they often immerse themselves in solving their infertility problems (Greil, 1991).

In a study conducted by Sarah Franklin in her book Embodied Progress, she interviewed several women about their experiences with infertility and the choices they made regarding their infertility. In many cases where women chose to undergo assisted reproductive technologies, they responded by saying that they felt that they had to try. She further reports that many women struggle with the notion that if they chose not to engage in these procedures which are often physically and emotionally draining, they will regret later in life that they did not do all that they could have done. Women reported that had they chose not to undergo assisted reproductive technologies, they would not have been able to live with themselves. Several accounts from her interviews can be seen below:

IVF: A Set of Hurdles

“And you think the first time, oh yes, it’s going to work, even though they say the first time doesn’t usually work. . .and the reason the disappointment is stronger than you’d expect is because it’s like a set of hurdles, and each on that you’re successful you build your hope a bit more.”

- Karen Clarke

“Well, just reading in an article and coming to the treatment I didn’t realize there were so many obstacles that you’ve got to get over, you’ve got to get over each obstacle one at a time before you carry on to the next, you know there may be a problem where you just don’t ovulate for one reason or another, so that cycle has been abandoned, and then try again the next cycle and then the problem is whether they fertilize, and then the problem of whether they will divide.”

- Susan Doyle

The Aspiration Procedure:

“I wasn’t prepared for how painful the aspiration was going to be. I mean they give you a pain barrier form, and I just went off the page. . . I don’t remember anything about the aspiration at all except the pain. . . I was in agony.”

- Mary Chadwick

The Emotional Demands of IVF:

“Because it is, psychologically I think it’s a lot worse than physically, and that’s even with all the dashing around and the injections in your bottom every morning. . . Paying for it and doing it is nothing compared with the psychological part of it. . . It strikes you in your mind. . . because it’s easy to get carried away with it.”

- Mavis Norton

Dealing With Failure in IVF:

“And then each time, you know, they give you some treatment, then you start sort of hoping again, you know, and then it doesn’t work, so um, you know, you begin to think it will never work and then you try something else, and it just goes on like that in a cycle until you just accept it in the end that that’s it, you know.”

- Christine Ingram

Questions or Comments: Email Dr. Verna Case

Davidson College Biology Department