“Just because a doctor says something, doesn’t mean that [it] will happen”: Self-perception as having a Fertility Problem among Infertility Patients

Authors

Ophra Leyser-Whalen, University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Arthur L. Greil, Alfred UniversityFollow
Julia McQuillan, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Katherine M. Johnson, Tulane UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2018

Citation

Published in Sociology of Health & Illness 40:3 (2018), pp 445–462.

doi 10.1111/1467-9566.12657

PMID: 29280501

Comments

Copyright © 2017 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Used by permission

Abstract

Only some individuals who have the medically defined condition ‘infertility’ adopt a self-definition as having a fertility problem, which has implications for social and behavioral responses, yet there is no clear consensus on why some people and not others adopt a medical label. We use interview data from 28 women and men who sought medical infertility treatment to understand variations in self-identification. Results highlight the importance of identity disruption for understanding the dialectical relationship between medical contact and self-identification, as well as how diagnosis acts both as a category and a process. Simultaneously integrating new medical knowledge from testing and treatment with previous fertility self-perceptions created difficulty for settling on an infertility self-perception. Four response categories emerged for adopting a self-perception of having a fertility problem: (i) the non-adopters – never adopting the self-perception pre- or post-medical contact; (ii) uncertain – not being fully committed to the self-perception pre- or post-medical contact; (iii) assuming the label – not having prior fertility concerns but adopting the self-perception post-medical contact; and (iv) solidifying a tentative identity – not being fully committed to a self-perception pre-medical contact, but fully committed post-medical contact.