Stigma: The hidden burden of infertility

Linda M. Whiteford and Lois Gonzalez

Social Science & Medicine, 1995, vol. 40, issue 1, 27-36

Abstract: Infertility is experienced by 5 million U.S. couples, some of whom perceive it a stigmatizing condition. Recent technological innovations have created a multitude of medical interventions for those infertile individuals who can financially afford them. For some infertile women, those interventions also transform infertility from a private pain to a public, prolonged crisis. Our research focuses on 25 U.S. women who sought medical treatment for infertility and describes their perception of the stigma associated with infertility. We apply a critical, feminist perspective to our analysis of the women's lived experiences within the social and medical contexts in which they occur.

Keywords: infertility; stigma; U.S.; women (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1995
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(94)00124-C
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:40:y:1995:i:1:p:27-36

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().