“It’s Different for Men”

Abstract

Drawing on interview data with men and women who have engaged with in vitro fertilization (IVF) unsuccessfully, this article explores the ways in which men experience and make sense of the failure of treatment. Focusing on men's experiences of infertility, their perceptions of IVF as a technology, and their involvement in the IVF process, the analysis highlights the ambivalent relationship between men and IVF as a technology; the predominance of hegemonic masculine culture in mediating the meaning of IVF for both men and women, particularly in relation to the association of fertility and virility in the normative construction of masculinity; and the very traditionally gendered emotional scripts that structure the experience of IVF and its failure.Given the notion of a close connection between masculinity and technology (e.g., is perhaps surprising that relatively little work has been done to get inside the relationship between specific groups of men and specific technologies. This is especially true in relation to the new reproductive technologies (NRTs), and the aim of this article is to do just this. It investigates men's feelings, beliefs, and practices in relation to in vitro fertilization (IVF)-the medical procedure whereby eggs are collected from a woman's ovaries following hormonal stimulation, fertilized outside the body with sperm supplied by a man, and then transferred to the uterus.Our analysis is based on in-depth interviews with 13 heterosexual couples and 15 women (whose male partners did not participate in the interviews), all of whom have undergone at least one unsuccessful IVF cycle within the past five years and who have since stopped treatment. The approach taken is a feminist one. We start from the understanding that men and women have structurally different relationships to IVF, because of both normative assumptions about the different significance of childbearing/rearing for heterosexual men and women and the material impact of the technological

Nordic couples’ decision-making processes in anticipation of contacting a fertility clinic

“…Men in our study mainly used the Internet or talked to their partners to get knowledge and support, and said that discussions with others felt like prying. This is in line with a study by Throsby and Gill (2004) where men did not feel they got supportive responses from within the male community. A study by Peronace, Boivin, and Schmidt (2007) also showed that even positive support from the men's social networks was reduced or changed negatively over time.…”

“…This delayed the decision to get help. Other studies have found similar reluctance to make the decision to seek help, both for women White et al, 2006) and men (Throsby & Gill, 2004).…”

British Pakistani Muslim Masculinity, (In)fertility, and the Clinical Encounter

“…In other cases, women praised and protected their husbands, clearly committed to the conjugal relationship and choosing not to reveal the cause of infertility because "it would be degrading to your husband." Walle (2004) has written about the way in which maintaining secrecy around things which might cause shame provides protection for Pakistani men; families comply with this as it is in their interest as well, but this extends beyond Pakistani men, including to white British men (see Throsby and Gill 2004).…”

Managing multiple goals during fertility treatment: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

“…Participants were interviewed individually. Previous research suggests that individual interviews allow participants, particularly men, to express negative perspectives or distress that they may wish to conceal from their partner (Glover et al, 2009;Throsby and Gill, 2004). The interview schedule drew on the selfregulatory, stress, coping and infertility literature.…”