Infertility, Women and Assisted Reproductive Technologies

This qualitative study discusses issues related to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treatment, the everyday experiences of and the reasons why women approach infertility clinics. I have attempted to show that ART imposes a double burden on women, namely, the burden of a social system that restricts women's role to child bearing and the burden of what might be described as the medicalisation of their problems. There is an obvious gap between the 'created' desire for a biological child and the inability to produce one. Though the sample size is small and the results cannot be generalised, the study does point to certain trends. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]