(Mis)Alignment of Perceived and Medically-Defined Infertility: Sociodemographic Variation and Impacts on Treatment-Seeking

• In Event: 30452 - Health Disparities and the Medicalization of Population Health

Abstract

Infertility prevalence and treatment-seeking for infertility issues are misaligned in the United States; populations that experience higher prevalence of infertility are less likely to seek medical care for this condition. One potential mechanism of this inequality could be related to self-perceptions of infertility. That is, many help-seeking models are predicated on the idea that one perceives symptoms as a problem in need of solving. As evidenced by a number of qualitative studies, in the case of infertility – a more discretionary condition that has more recently become medicalized – this process of self-identification is complex due to gendered and racialized norms linked to motherhood and fertility. Building on this robust set of previously-published qualitative studies, this paper seeks to undertake a quantitative study of alignment between perceived and medically defined-infertility across sociodemographic groups. Using the National Survey of Family Growth, the present study investigates 1) sociodemographic variation in alignment between perceived and medically-defined infertility with a national sample, and 2) whether and how such alignment groups are associated with treatment-seeking overall and within sociodemographic groups. The preliminary results show substantive sociodemographic variation and associations between alignment and treatment-seeking behavior. The paper will contribute novel insights into both the specific processes of inequalities in fertility treatment-seeking as well as broader discussions about the role of identity and self-perception of illness in discretionary conditions.

Authors

• Kate Tierney, Western Michigan University

• Arthur L. Greil, Alfred University

• Ann V. Bell, University of Delaware