Women's experiences of childlessness 2 years after the end of in vitro fertilization treatment

Abstract

Approximately 15% of all couples in the reproductive age are involuntarily childless. Many of these couples consult medical experts for diagnosis and treatment but not all of them achieve the results. This paper describes a study of women's experiences of childlessness 2 years after the end of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, which represents the end of infertility treatment in Swedish society. Giorgi's method, based on Husserl's phenomenology with the lifeworld theory, was used. The participants were eight women treated at the Clinic of Reproductive Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden. Data were generated from transcriptions of taped interviews. Five constituents emerged from the analysis: (i) childlessness is a central issue in life, (ii) IVF is a positive and important part of life, (iii) contact with other people is not an important issue, (iv) the hope of achieving pregnancy still exists and (v) attempts to identify other central issues in life. The essence of all constituents is 'life-grief' and expresses the grief of being childless, of not reproducing, and being unable to confirm one's relationship through parenthood. The result is important in professional caring and presents a challenge to all midwives, nurses, physicians and other staff who are involved in the care of involuntarily childless women.

Procreation: How Others Perceive those who Can not or will not

“…Until then, clinicians may need to recognize childlessness as another facet of diversity that impacts how individuals and couples relate to others and each other, and that childlessness may sometimes place individuals, particularly women, at risk for stigmatization. If future research demonstrates that stigmatization no longer exists, clinicians might work toward assisting childless couples to access support and relationships that the childless couple may have once overlooked due to the assumption that they would be stigmatized [7,10,18,19].…”

“…Thus, observers may have attributed all of the aforementioned negative stereotypes associated with voluntarily childlessness to a couple who actually desires offspring but are unable to give birth [6]. In addition to attribution errors, the infertile have also been assumed to be physically dysfunctional [6], sexually dysfunctional [2] or deserving of barrenness according to various religious and cultural perspectives [19], which contributes to involuntarily childless couples experiencing feelings of inadequacy and shame [6].…”

“…Many couples have reported significant feelings of loneliness, isolation, and a lack of genuine social support from relatives and friends [17,18]. Some infertile women never speak to others about their infertility because they assume parents would not understand their plight, and childless couples may avoid attempting to socialize with parents for fear that they would have little in common with similarly aged parents [19].…”

Ovarian Tissue Cryopreservation / Transplantation for Social Reasons: Between (“Good”) Medicalization and Medical Treatment.

“…Childlessness is associated with serious negative psychological effects: serious anxiety, stress [55], feelings of grief, mourning [57], experience loss, low self-esteem, social isolation, relationship problems and sexual dysfunction [58].…”

Does fertility-specific distress vary by race/ethnicity among a probability sample of women in the United States?

“…Identity theory has been applied to the experience of infertility (McQuillan et al, 2003;Matthews and Martin-Matthews, 1986). Because infertility is often experienced as a failure to achieve a deeply desired identity (Becker, 2000;Exley and Letherby, 2001), infertility can lead to psychological distress (Johansson and Berg, 2005;Klemetti et al, 2010;Sexton et al, 2010). Little is known, however, about possible differences in levels of infertility-related distress among racial/ ethnic groups in the United States.…”