Leyser-Whalen Ophra, Greil Arthur L, McQuillan Julia, Johnson Katherine M, Shrefffler Karina M
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso, Texas, USA.
Division of Social Sciences, Alfred University, New York, USA.
Sociol Health Illn. 2018 Mar;40(3):445-462. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12657. Epub 2017 Dec 27.
Only some individuals who have the medically defined condition 'infertility' adopt a self-definition as having a fertility problem, which has implications for social and behavioural responses, yet there is no clear consensus on why some people and not others adopt a medical label. We use interview data from 28 women and men who sought medical infertility treatment to understand variations in self-identification. Results highlight the importance of identity disruption for understanding the dialectical relationship between medical contact and self-identification, as well as how diagnosis acts both as a category and a process. Simultaneously integrating new medical knowledge from testing and treatment with previous fertility self-perceptions created difficulty for settling on an infertility self-perception. Four response categories emerged for adopting a self-perception of having a fertility problem: (i) the non-adopters - never adopting the self-perception pre- or post-medical contact; (ii) uncertain - not being fully committed to the self-perception pre- or post-medical contact; (iii) assuming the label - not having prior fertility concerns but adopting the self-perception post-medical contact; and (iv) solidifying a tentative identity - not being fully committed to a self-perception pre-medical contact, but fully committed post-medical contact. (A virtual abstract of this paper can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_979cmCmR9rLrKuD7z0ycA).
只有一些患有医学定义的“不孕症”的个体将自己定义为有生育问题，这对社会和行为反应有影响，但对于为什么有些人采用医学标签而有些人不采用，目前尚无明确共识。我们使用了28名寻求医学不孕症治疗的女性和男性的访谈数据，以了解自我认同的差异。结果凸显了身份认同中断对于理解医疗接触与自我认同之间辩证关系的重要性，以及诊断如何既作为一种类别又作为一个过程。同时，将来自检测和治疗的新医学知识与先前的生育自我认知相结合，使得确定不孕症自我认知变得困难。出现了四种接受有生育问题自我认知的反应类别：（i）不接受者——在医疗接触之前或之后从未接受自我认知；（ii）不确定者——在医疗接触之前或之后未完全接受自我认知；（iii）接受标签者——之前没有生育问题担忧，但在医疗接触之后接受自我认知；（iv）巩固暂定身份者——在医疗接触之前未完全接受自我认知，但在医疗接触之后完全接受。（本文的虚拟摘要可在以下网址查看：https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_979cmCmR9rLrKuD7z0ycA）
