Doctoral Dissertation Research: Anticipating Infertility: The Emergence of a Medical Market for Fertility Preservation

本项目探讨了保留生育能力作为针对健康妇女的一种新的医疗干预手段的社会意义和影响。卵子冷冻是最重要的生育保存技术，通过保留女性的生育能力来延长生殖寿命，超过了生育年龄的限制。卵子冷冻不是治疗女性不孕症，而是预测健康的育龄妇女与年龄相关的不孕症。现在正在开发和销售诸如卵子冷冻之类的技术，通过调整妇女的生育时间表使其与职业轨迹同步，作为一种可能的母性和专业工作的调和。虽然冷冻卵子似乎通过改变生育时间使妇女对自己的生活有更多的控制权，但这是在强调母性的社会背景下发生的，而且专业工作的条件往往在职业发展和家庭建立之间造成不可调和的时间冲突。这些新技术也出现在医学领域，通过侵入性生物医学干预促进健康和预防疾病。这个项目在争论的关键处考察了这种紧张关系，一方面，关于女性扩大代理的主张，另一方面，持续的信息表明母性对她们的身份至关重要。该项目的研究结果将使医疗和公共卫生专业人员，特别是生殖医学领域的专业人员了解他们使用新技术的工作。此外，通过深入了解妇女的动机、经验和对生育能力保存策略的看法，本项目将有助于关注卵子冷冻资格和可及性的政策制定者。研究结果还将为有关保持生育能力、工作场所性别不平等和工作-家庭冲突问题之间复杂关系的社会对话提供信息。本文采用定性混合方法设计来解决两个研究问题。首先，该项目将审查自1980年以来在生殖医学领域的临床期刊、流行妇女和商业杂志以及报纸上发表的文章，以查明专业和媒体的说法如何帮助确立卵子冷冻作为一种选择性、社会或生活方式的选择，从而扩展到最初为因疾病或其他医疗问题而生育能力受损的妇女开发的一种新的人口技术。第二，该项目将在旨在促进保持生育能力的教育和营销活动中进行人种学观察。第三，该项目将对生殖医学领域的专家、使用卵子冷冻的妇女以及在生育服务主要目的地的美国三个城市推广生育保存技术的一系列人员进行80次深入的定性访谈。该项目将使用开放和结构化编码分析所有数据。该项目的研究结果将为与性别、家庭和工作场所有关的社会学理论提供信息，特别是那些关于21世纪工作与家庭冲突和女性生活历程的理论。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project investigates the social meaning and implications of fertility preservation as a new medical intervention directed at healthy women. Egg freezing, the foremost fertility preservation technology, extends the reproductive life span by preserving a woman's fertility beyond the limits of her reproductive years. Rather than treat the condition of infertility in women, egg freezing anticipates age-related infertility in otherwise healthy women of reproductive age. Techniques such as egg freezing are now being developed and marketed as a potential reconciliation of motherhood and professional work by adjusting women's reproductive timelines to synchronize with career trajectories. While egg freezing appears to give women more control over their lives by altering the timing of reproduction, it does so in a social context that emphasizes motherhood and where the conditions of professional work often create irreconcilable time conflicts between career advancement and family formation. Such new technologies also appear in a medical context that promotes health and the prevention of illness through invasive biomedical interventions. This project examines this tension at the crux of debates regarding, on the one hand, claims about women's expanding agency, and on the other, the persistent messaging suggesting motherhood as essential to their identity. Findings from this project will inform the medical and public health professions, particularly in the field of reproductive medicine, regarding their work using new technologies. In addition, this project will be useful to policy-makers concerned with eligibility for and accessibility to egg freezing by providing insight into women's motivations, experiences, and perspectives on fertility preservation strategies. Findings will also inform societal conversations regarding the complex relationships between fertility preservation, gender inequality in the workplace and the issue of work-family conflict.This dissertation employs a qualitative mixed-methods design to address two research questions. First, the project will examine articles published in clinical journals in the field of reproductive medicine, popular women's and business magazines, and newspapers since 1980 to trace how professional and media claims have helped establish egg freezing as an elective, social or lifestyle choice, thus extending to a new population technologies originally developed for women with compromised fertility due to illness or other medical issues. Second, the project will conduct ethnographic observation at educational and marketing events aimed at promoting fertility preservation. Third, the project will conduct 80 in-depth, qualitative interviews with experts in the field of reproductive medicine, women who use egg freezing, and a range of actors who promote fertility preservation techniques in three United States cities that are major destinations for fertility services. The project will analyze all data using both open and structured coding. Findings from the project will inform sociological theories related to gender, family, and the workplace, particularly those theories concerning work-family conflict and women's life course in the 21st century.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.