Infertility as seen by the infertile couples from a collectivistic culture

Abstract

Infertility in collectivistic cultures is usually regarded as a matter of social stigmatization instead of a biomedical problem. It has adverse sociocultural consequences, especially for the female spouse. The current study, by involving 20 infertile couples, was a qualitative research focusing on the sociocultural experiences of the infertile couples about the nature, causes, and consequences of infertility. The findings of the current study clearly depicted the sociocultural factors involved in interpreting infertility as a matter of shame and bad reputation for the couple and its family. The study has filled a significant knowledge gap and will be useful in identifying and addressing the cultural barriers in the treatment of infertility. K E Y W O R D S assisted reproductive technologies, culture, in vitro fertilization, infertility, intra cytoplasmic sperm injection 1 | INTRODUCTION Infertility, revolving around biomedical, psychological, social, economic, cultural, and religious spheres, is defined as the inability of a non-contraceptive couple to achieve pregnancy after 1 or 2 years of regular unprotected heterosexual intercourse (Cousineau & Domar, 2007; Mumtaz et al., 2013; Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, 2008). The general public perceives infertility as a permanent inability to give birth (Miall, 2008). A childless couple may not view themselves as infertile until they consider childlessness a problem (Evens, 2004; Greil et al., 2011). Infertility is distinguishable from "subfecundity" which refers to any couple having trouble in carrying a pregnancy to a live birth, if conception occurs (Loftus, 2009; Peterson et al., 2006); whereas the clinical definition of "infecundity" is no pregnancy resulting in live birth after 12 months of unprotected intercourse (Healy et al., 1994). Nearly 4.3 million married women and their partners possess impaired fecundity (Chandra et al., 2005). Infertility is characterized as "primary" for nulliparous women and "secondary" for parous women (Mumtaz et al., 2013).

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“…They are mostly dependent on their husbands (Husain, 2020) and are expected to be in the service of men as housemaids (Cast & Bird, 2005) regardless of their wishes and capabilities (Forssén et al, 2005). They are condemned for being infertile (Husain & Imran, 2020) and humiliated for being a matter of shame for the family (Gill, 2010). These situations put women at a higher risk of several psychological problems (Husain, 2018;Husain & Faize, 2020;Husain & Qureshi, 2016), which stay unresolved (Husain, 2019).…”

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“…, 2005). They are condemned for being infertile (Husain and Imran, 2020) and humiliated for being a matter of shame for the family. These situations put women at a higher risk of several psychological problems (Husain, 2018; Husain and Qureshi, 2016; Husain and Faize, 2020), which stay unresolved (Husain, 2019).…”

“…They are mostly dependent on their husbands (Husain, 2020) and are expected to serve as housemaids (Cast and Bird, 2005) regardless of their willingness (Forss en et al, 2005). They are condemned for being infertile (Husain and Imran, 2020) and humiliated for being a matter of shame for the family. These situations put women at a higher risk of several psychological problems (Husain, 2018;Husain and Qureshi, 2016;Husain and Faize, 2020), which stay unresolved (Husain, 2019).…”