Anthropological Study of Lived Experience of Women Fertilized by Fertilization Methods in Infertility Treatment Center of Yazd

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Payam-e-Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

2 MA graduate, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Due to the cultural structure of Iran, infertility is an issue with many significant dimensions. Nowadays in order to solve the issue of infertility, medical knowledge has introduced a variety of methods and strategies, including offering alternative womb and in vitro fertilization. Although these methods can prove effective in fertility, they can have both positive and negative consequences in the lives of the infertile women. However, considering that the bulk of anthropological researches have been carried out qualitatively, this investigation which has been conducted in the field of medical anthropology is qualitative as well. Data have been collected by using observations and comprehensive interviews with fifteen infertile women in Infertility Treatment Center of Yazd, Iran taking into account the maximum socio-cultural and demographic variance. Then ten themes were extracted based on which the main concepts of the research were obtained. In order to analyze the research findings, interpretive phenomenology was used. Results showed that infertility is one of the most significant causes of physical and psychological stress among the infertile women. Throughout the process of treatment, these women experienced a continuum of lack of hope and disappointment; so they adopt exposure strategies and various other solutions. In fact, fertilization gives them hope for life, as they are born again and start a new life with the birth of their child.

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