Organizing male infertility: Masculinities and fertility treatment

Abstract

This paper explores how organizations within the fertility treatment sector in the UK discursively construct (cis) male infertility and whether, in so doing, they reinforce or reproduce prevailing institutionalized discourses and practices of masculinity. We seek to address the gender disparity in contemporary understandings of reproductive health in Organization Studies (OS) where women's experience of infertility and its impact is well researched, but only occasionally does this extend to issues of male infertility. Specifically, we build on existing literature in the social sciences and OS on male infertility and expand it by investigating the organizations that treat fertility issues. We examine and discuss how they may inadvertently contribute to this neglect, by reflecting and reproducing the masculine norms that surround male infertility. We employ a thematic analysis to examine texts produced by organizations involved in the fertility sector and find that male infertility is discussed and presented through three intersecting lenses: (a) a hegemonic masculinization of infertility; (b) male infertility as an othering experience; and (c) disembodied masculinity. We highlight how these gendered organizational narratives (re) produce prevailing norms and practices of masculinity, and how an organizational shift within the sector needs to take place if substantial changes toward more caring, relational,

“Am I Masculine?” A metasynthesis of qualitative studies on traditional masculinity on infertility

“…Cervi and Knights argue that a combination of social, medical, and organizational perspectives that are heterogeneous and engaged in reproduction is needed for the treatment of infertility. All of them can play a role in providing medication and nutrition, providing legal advice or moral therapy to relieve stress ( Cervi & Knights, 2022 ). Thus, this solution is required to fight the toxicity of excessive masculinity.…”

Exploring men's struggles with infertility: A qualitative content analysis

“…This perspective can leave infertile men feeling powerless and emasculated. The problem of male infertility is worsened by healthcare professionals who refrain from discussing the topic with their patients, resulting in infertile men being left out of meaningful conversations regarding reproductive health (Cervi & Knights, 2022). When male infertility is left out of social narratives on reproduction, it adds to the distress of infertile men.…”

“…However, it is essential to recognize that male‐factor infertility can cause men to feel emasculated and vulnerable (Shabto et al., 2022). These emotions may prompt men to refrain from discussing their challenges and conceal their state, intensifying their anxiety and stress and rendering the circumstances even more difficult for healthcare providers (Cervi & Knights, 2022).…”

“Potential parenthood” and identity threats: Navigating complex fertility journeys alongside work and employment

“…According to the World Health Organization, 15% of reproductive‐age couples experience some form of infertility at least once in their lives 2 . Meanwhile, new medical technologies of assisted human reproduction and a flourishing fertility industry are creating alternative routes to, and new subjectivities of, biological parenthood (see Cervi & Brewis, 2021; Cervi & Knights, 2022). In the UK in 2019, almost 53,000 patients underwent more than 74,700 fertility treatment cycles (HFEA, 2021): this figure includes heterosexual couples, women seeking assisted reproduction with their female partner, as well as women pursuing solo parenthood.…”

“…In the UK in 2019, almost 53,000 patients underwent more than 74,700 fertility treatment cycles (HFEA, 2021): this figure includes heterosexual couples, women seeking assisted reproduction with their female partner, as well as women pursuing solo parenthood. How childless subjects negotiate the “private worlds of reproduction and public worlds of organization” (Gatrell, 2013, p. 621) at pre‐conception and early stages of fertility journeys is a relatively new though fast emerging topic in studies of work and organizing, with Gender, Work, and Organization providing an important arena for this scholarship (e.g., Cervi & Brewis, 2021; Cervi & Knights, 2022; Griffiths, 2021; Porschitz & Siler, 2017). Our paper contributes to the scholarship by shifting the focus away from the workplace inequalities generated by successful embodied pregnancy and parenthood in order to address the question: how do childless subjects negotiate between work identities and desired identities of parenthood?…”