Stopping the Clock: Biomedicalizing Age through the Scientific Development of Fertility Preservation

• In Event: 4364 - Contextualizing Reproductive Trajectories

Abstract

Reproductive technologies and infertility are wrought with ambiguities and uncertainties. Through a content analysis of scientific journal articles published between 1980 and 2016 about oocyte and semen cryopreservation, this study shows how biomedical scientists construct ideal typical timelines for not only biology, but also social relationships and institutional arrangements. This paper extends Martin’s (2017) analyses of social and biological fertility by investigating how the construction of age-related fertility risk reinforces gender inequality. While biological risks related to aging are framed as universal, social risks become tied to individual choices and personal responsibility. Fertility risks are identified when one or more aspects of the ideal social and biological timelines fall out of sync with the others. Cryopreservation is offered as a biomedical tool of fertility risk management, allowing patients to freeze part of their biological timelines. In this case study, the medicalization of aging emerges as a means of reinforcing normative gender timelines for work, social relationships, and medical treatment.

Author

• Ashlyn Jaeger, UC Davis