A Phenomenological Study on the Infertility Experience of Women of Childbearing Age in South Korea: Caring for My Marginalized Identity

Background: While the application of procedural methods to solve the infertility problem has increased, the decline in the quality of life of women who experience infertility has been disregarded. Methods: This qualitative study used phenomenological analysis of data collected from 13 women with infertility in South Korea to reveal the subjective meaning of physical experiences perceived by women over the course of treatment. Results: Upon analyses of the treatment experiences of women with infertility in South Korea via a phenomenological analysis method, 10 themes were extracted and integrated into four theme clusters (“Perceiving infertility,” “The body that gives birth,” “A process in an endless tunnel,” “Caring for my marginalized identity”). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that women with infertility in South Korea perceived their own bodies as givers of birth living in traditional and patriarchal societies. A contextual flow proceeded to the final stage of women caring for their marginalized identity, which had suffered throughout the course of their infertility journey. KCI Citation Count: 0