Religion and Treatment Seeking for Infertility among U.S. Women and Men

• In Event: Sociology of Reproduction

Abstract

Treatment-seeking for infertility and fertility difficulties differs by SES, race/ethnicity and other social characteristics, in the United States. Despite this growing area of research, relatively little quantitative work has focused on how religion shapes infertility treatment-seeking in the U.S.. The mechanisms shaping infertility treatment use among religious populations are varied and could have mixed effects. For example, earlier age at first marriage may reduce the likelihood of age-related fertility declines and, thus, lower need for fertility treatments. By contrast, pressures to have children may be greater among people who are more religious, which may increase utilization. Indeed, prior work using the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB) among infertile women showed indirect and mixed effects of religion on help-seeking when testing the mechanism of importance of motherhood and ethical concerns about specific fertility treatments. In this paper, we build upon these findings from the NSFB using a large sample of women and men from five cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) (n=45,225). Our work will extend this prior work by 1) including both women and men, 2) using three measures of religion (denomination, frequency of attendance, and importance of religion), and 3) testing possible mechanisms linking religion and help-seeking, including age at first marriage, entrance into marriage, and childbearing desires. Preliminary results show evidence of differences in ever-seeking fertility care across different measures of religion. Overall, this paper will contribute new information about whether and how religion and religiosity are associated with fertility treatment-seeking among U.S. women and men. Understanding this issue is important for reducing barriers to treatment-seeking and, consequently, for enabling more people to have the children they desire.

Authors

• Kate Tierney, Western Michigan University

• Arthur L. Greil

• Logan Deeter, Western Michigan University