In Front of the Mirror of Social Expectations: Experiences of Women Until They Are Given a Diagnosis of Infertility

Abstract

<jats:p>The aim of this article is to overview women’s experiences in view of social expectations about having children. Such expectations are frequently implied in questions about procreation plans. Since the procreative experience was considered by the author as a process, it was possible to reconstruct changes in the meaning that the researched women ascribed to such questions at different stages of this experience, i.e. from the period prior to trying for a child, through the initial stage of trying to conceive, to the diagnostic stage until being given a diagnosis of infertility. At the stage prior to trying for a child, standing in front of the mirror of social expectations, the women saw themselves in the role of future mothers. At the initial stage of trying to conceive, seeing themselves in the mirror, the interviewed women saw themselves as pregnant women in near future. At the diagnostic stage until being given a diagnosis of infertility, the women saw only their uncertain future, i.e. themselves who wanted to have children very much, but were no longer certain whether they would become mothers.</jats:p>

Jakość życia pacjentów z nadciśnieniem tętniczym w wymiarze bio-psycho-społecznym zdrowia. Przegląd literatury

“…HRQoL allows you to look at the phenomena related to the disease in a broader aspect, both medical (e.g., testing the effectiveness of drugs) and non-medical Adam Pawlak, Alicja Sierakowska, The QoL of patients with AH in the bio-psycho-social dimension of health (functioning in the family or society). Moreover, health examinations contributed to the possibility of a better assessment of the general subjective QALY level as a measure of the QoL [15].…”

An Epistemological Perspective of Integrated Multidisciplinary Treatment When Dealing With Infertile Women With a Parenthood Goal: The Importance of Matterpsychic Perspective

“…The medical aspects relating to infertility were the first to receive a wide attention ( da Motta and Serafini, 2002 ; Lindsay and Vitrikas, 2015 ; Cunningham, 2017 ); the psychological ones were later considered in various terms, among which the effects of the diagnosis of infertility and the application of specific infertility counseling ( Boivin et al, 2001 ; Boivin and Gameiro, 2015 ). We have recently begun to study and deepen social aspects such as the advanced age of women at the moment of conception, lifestyle habits such as smoking and obesity, the fact of being single or part of a homosexual couple, and the donation of gametes and management of the unveiling to their family network and subsequently to the children born from this process ( Dhillon et al, 2000 ; Cousineau and Domar, 2007 ; Mohiyiddeen and Cerra, 2017 ; Walentynowicz-Moryl, 2020 ).…”