Sexuality Issues of Infertile Women

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  • 不妊当事者が抱えるセクシュアリティの問題
  • フニン トウジシャ ガ カカエル セクシュアリティ ノ モンダイ

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Abstract

This article addresses the problems of sexuality faced by infertile women. The article draws on research I conducted as part of a project entitled, “Experience and Consciousness Study of Infertile People.” I collected data from an original survey administered to 366 people and from unstructured narratives of a sub-sample of 128 people, and analyzed the results using qualitative content analysis. Women identified several problems, including:(1)Heteronomy, as a consequence of having to control the timing of sex and as a negative impact on the frequency of sex;(2) The enforcement of obligatory sex for reproduction;(3)The separation of reproduction from sex as a consequence of artificial insemination and/or in vitro fertilization; and (4) The reporting of ‘no effect.’ This study shows that the sexuality problems of infertile women signify their feelings of deviance. In particular, these women often feel deviant from their own internalized norms. Furthermore, some women who forego sex find themselves deviant from given paradigms of reproduction and intimacy. Another interesting finding indicates media influence on norms concerning sex. I found that: first, media enforces the reintegration of sex and reproduction as well as sex and intimacy; second, media is likely to define problems of sex as medicalized; and finally, media influence fosters time-control as well as ‘McDonaldization’ of sex based on a body of medical knowledge.

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