Knowing and not knowing about fertility: Childless women and age-related fertility decline

Knowledge claims may play an essential role in reproductive decision-making, as individuals seek out, assess, reject, and use information about health and fertility gathered from numerous sources. This paper focuses specifically on childless women’s self-perceptions of knowledge about infertility and age-related fertility decline. How knowledgeable do childless women perceive themselves to be about fertility and infertility in general, and from where they do they obtain this knowledge? Furthermore, how knowledgeable do childless women perceive themselves to be about their own fertility and ability to conceive, and to what do they attribute this knowledge? Data for this project was gathered through semi-structured interviews with 72 childless American women; the interviews were inductively and thematically coded using qualitative-analysis software. Childless women assessed their general knowledge of fertility as confident, self-doubting, or novices, and they claimed multiple sources as the basis of this knowledge, including formal education and training, media and popular culture, and family members and peers. When assessing knowledge about their own fecundity, the women tended to rely on two additional sources: biomedical diagnostics and embodied knowledge. Childless women’s awareness of average statistics of age-related fertility decline did not necessarily translate to individual self-knowledge about their own bodies and fecundity. Because knowledge claims were based on multiple information sources given unequal weight, this raises questions about authoritative knowledge—that is, the knowledge that “counts” for women as they make decisions regarding their future childbearing.

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Work Title Knowing and not knowing about fertility: Childless women and age-related fertility decline
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Open Access
Creators
  1. Lauren Jade Martin
Keyword
  1. Fertility
  2. Infertility
  3. Popular Culture
  4. Interviews
  5. Knowledge
  6. Health
  7. Interview
  8. Decision Making
  9. Software
  10. Education
  11. Family Member
  12. Weights And Measures
  13. Statistics
  14. Media Culture
  15. Statistics
  16. Self Concept
  17. Self Image
  18. Aptitude
  19. Diagnostic
License CC BY 4.0 (Attribution)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Anthropology and Aging
Publication Date May 11, 2021
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.5195/aa.2021.259
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Deposited April 25, 2024

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Version 1
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  • Updated
  • Added Creator Lauren Jade Martin
  • Updated Keyword, Publisher, Publisher Identifier (DOI), and 3 more Show Changes
    Keyword
    • Fertility, Infertility, Popular Culture, Interviews , Knowledge, Health, Interview, Decision Making, Software, Education, Family Member, Weights And Measures, Statistics , Media Culture, Statistics, Self Concept, Self Image, Aptitude, Diagnostic
    Publisher
    • Anthropology and Aging
    Publisher Identifier (DOI)
    • https://doi.org/10.5195/aa.2021.259
    Related URLs
    • http://anthro-age.pitt.edu/ojs/anthro-age/article/download/259/412
    Description
    • Knowledge claims may play an essential role in reproductive decision-making, as individuals seek out, assess, reject, and use information about health and fertility gathered from numerous sources. This paper focuses specifically on childless women’s self-perceptions of knowledge about infertility and age-related fertility decline. How knowledgeable do childless women perceive themselves to be about fertility and infertility in general, and from where they do they obtain this knowledge? Furthermore, how knowledgeable do childless women perceive themselves to be about their own fertility and ability to conceive, and to what do they attribute this knowledge? Data for this project was gathered through semi-structured interviews with 72 childless American women; the interviews were inductively and thematically coded using qualitative-analysis software. Childless women assessed their general knowledge of fertility as confident, self-doubting, or novices, and they claimed multiple sources as the basis of this knowledge, including formal education and training, media and popular culture, and family members and peers. When assessing knowledge about their own fecundity, the women tended to rely on two additional sources: biomedical diagnostics and embodied knowledge. Childless women’s awareness of average statistics of age-related fertility decline did not necessarily translate to individual self-knowledge about their own bodies and fecundity. Because knowledge claims were based on multiple information sources given unequal weight, this raises questions about authoritative knowledge—that is, the knowledge that “counts” for women as they make decisions regarding their future childbearing.
    Publication Date
    • 2021-05-11
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  • Updated Creator Lauren Jade Martin
  • Added Knowing and Not Knowing-1.pdf
  • Updated License Show Changes
    License
    • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  • Published
  • Updated