Abstract
The last thirty years have seen considerable developments in the study of human reproduction. Arguably, however, the medical and social scientific study of the social, emotional and medical issues surrounding the experience of ‘infertility’ remains underdeveloped. This issue also seems to receive less political attention than other reproductive issues:
Infertility is a bit like the poor sister and the last frontier in reproductive health. Although a number of sexually transmitted infections are responsible for tubal infertility, miscarriage and stillbirth, most STI/HIV clinics do not address infertility directly in their counselling or education work. The reproductive tract infections that result from unsafe childbirth and unsafe abortion practices, which along with STIs are responsible for a large proportion of secondary infertility in many developing countries, are still not treated as a priority in public health services, and millions of women still do not get skilled attendance for these today.
(Berer 1999:7)
I write ‘infertility’ and ‘involuntary childlessness’ in inverted commas to highlight the problems of definition.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
A. T. Altschul, ‘The consumer’s voice: Nursing implications’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 8 (1983) 175–183.
E. Annandale and J. Clark, ‘What is gender? Feminist theory and the sociology of human reproduction’, Sociology of Health and Illness 18:1 (1996) 17–44.
E. Annandale and K. Hunt, ‘Accounts of disagreements with doctors’, Social, Science and Medicine, 46:1 (1998) 119–129.
G. Becker and R. D. Nachtigall, ‘Eager for medicalisation; The social production of infertility as a disease’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 14:4 (1992) 451–471.
M. Berer, ‘Living without children’, Reproductive Health Matters, 7:13 (1999) 7–12.
J. Cornwell, Hard Earned Lives (London: Tavistock, 1984).
P. Cotterill and G. Letherby, ‘Weaving stories: Personal auto/biographies in feminist research’, Sociology, 27:1 (1993) 67–79.
J. Coyle, ‘Exploring the meaning of “Dissatisfaction” with health care: The importance of “Personal Identity Threat”’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 18:1 (1999) 17–44.
E. Denny, ‘Liberation or oppression?: Radical feminism and in vitro fertilisation’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 16:1 (1994) 62–80.
L. Doyal, What Makes Women Sick: Gender and the Political Economy of Health (Harmondsworth: Macmillan, 1995).
S. Franklin, ‘Deconstructing desperateness: the social construction of infertility in popular presentations of new reproductive technologies’, in M. McNeil, I. Varcoe and S. Yearley (eds), The New Reproductive Technologies (Hampshire and London: Macmillan, 1990).
S. Franklin, ‘Making sense of missed conceptions: Anthropological perspectives on unexplained infertility’, in M. Stacey (ed.), Changing Human Reproduction: social science perspectives (London: Sage, 1992).
S. Franklin, Embodied Progress: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception (London: Routledge, 1997).
E. Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963).
A. L. Greil, ‘Infertility and psychological distress: A critical review of the literature’, Social Science and Medicine, 45:11 (1997) 1679–1704.
A. L. Greil, ‘Infertile bodies: Medicalization, metaphor, and agency’, in M. C. Inhorn and F. van Balen (eds), Infertility around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender and Reproductive Technologies (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002).
B. Katz Rothman, The Tentative Pregnancy: Prenatal Diagnosis and the Future of Motherhood (London: Pandora, 1988).
M. Mason, Male Infertility: Men Talking (London: Routledge, 1993).
M. McNeil, I. Varcoe and S. Yearley (eds), The New Reproductive Technologies (London: Macmillan, 1990).
L. Meerabeau, ‘Parents in waiting: Subfertility as a blocked status passage’ (Paper presented to the BSA (British Sociological Association) Annual Conference, Manchester University, April 1989).
L. Meerabeau, Parents in Waiting: The Experience of Subfertile Couples, PhD Thesis, University of London, 1991.
J. H. Monach, Childless No Choice: The Experience of Involuntary Childlessness (London: Routledge, 1993).
C. Overall, Ethics and Human Reproduction: A Feminist Analysis (London: Allen and Unwin, 1989).
R. Petchesky, ‘Foetal images: the power of visual culture in the politics of reproduction’, in M. Stanworth (ed.), Reproductive Technologies: Gender, Motherhood and Medicine (Cambridge: Polity, 1987).
N. Pfeffer, ‘Artificial insemination, IVF and the stigma of infertility’, in M. Stanworth (ed.), Reproductive Technologies: Gender, Motherhood and Medicine (Cambridge: Polity, 1987).
N. Pfeffer, The Stork and the Syringe: A Political History of Reproductive Medicine (Cambridge: Polity, 1993).
N. Pfeffer and A. Woollett, The Experience of Infertility (London: Virago, 1983).
J. F. Playle and P. Keeley, ‘Non-compliance and professional power’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 27 (1998) 304–311.
M. Sandelowski, B. G. Harris and B. P. Black, ‘Relinquishing infertility: The work of pregnancy for infertile couples’, Qualitative Health Research, 2 (1992) 282–301.
L. Stanley, ‘Feminist auto/biography and feminist epistemology’, in J. Aaron and S. Walby (eds), Out of the Margins: Women’s Studies in the Nineties (London: Falmer, 1991).
L. Stanley, ‘On auto/biography in sociology’, Sociology, 27:1 (1993) 41–52.
L. Stanley and S. Wise, Breaking Out Again: Feminist Ontology and Epistemology (London: Routledge, 1993).
G. Stimson and B. Webb, Going to See the Doctor, (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975).
A. Strauss and J. Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques (London: Sage, 1990).
J. Sundby, ‘Sad not to have children, happy to be childless: A personal and professional experience of infertility’, Reproductive Health Matters, 7:13 (1999) 13–19.
F. van Balen, ‘The psychologization of infertility’, in M. C. Inhorn and F. van Balen (eds), Infertility around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender and Reproductive Technologies (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 2002).
F. van Balen and M. C. Inhorn, ‘Introduction. Interpreting infertility: A view from the social sciences’, in M. C. Inhorn and F. van Balen (eds), Infertility around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender and Reproductive Technologies (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 2002).
R. Wallsgrove, ‘The Masculine Face of Science’, in Brighton Women and Science Group (eds), Alice through the Looking Glass: The Power of Science over Women’s Lives (London: Virago, 1980).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2003 Gayle Letherby
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Letherby, G. (2003). I didn’t Think Much of his Bedside Manner but he was very Skilled at his Job: Medical Encounters in Relation to ‘Infertility’. In: Earle, S., Letherby, G. (eds) Gender, Identity & Reproduction. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522930_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522930_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-50829-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-52293-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)