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consequences of the infertility–childlessness stigma, especially for women, may include depression, low self-esteem, and even suicidal ideation or suicide. People with infertility living in societies where it is a stigmatized condition may suffer from anxiety, may choose to self-isolate, and may become secretive or withdrawn. In
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Realignment of social relationships, including divorce, polygamy, adultery, or promiscuity. One study showed that infertility in Ghana led to "increased risk of precarious sexual behaviour of both men and women...trying out different partners, attempting to prove that they are not the source of the
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has "transformed infertility from an acute, private agony that was accepted as fate, into a chronic, public stigma from which there were costly, and often unfulfilled hopes, of deliverance." In some cultures, biomedical explanations for infertility may be disregarded in favor of traditional beliefs
50:
Infertility and childlessness can have negative social, psychological and economic consequences, including "discrimination, social exclusion, and abandonment." Adults without children may be subject to derisive language, intrusive questioning, shaming, ostracism, and physical abuse. Other negative
22:
are social and cultural codes that identify the inability to have children as a disgraceful state of being. Broadly speaking, in many cultures, "Demonstrating fertility is necessary to be considered a full adult, a real man or woman, and to leave a legacy after death," and thus the failure to make
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of stigma. Blame may assigned, variously, to having offended gods or ancestors, abortions in a past life, practicing witchcraft, past promiscuity, use of birth control, wrong living generally, etc. Exclusion of the infertile or childlessness from social events is known, enacted as a means of
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In some cultures, funeral practices for childless women are different from those for women who successfully conceived and bore offspring. Notably, "In the Hindu religion, a woman without a child, particularly a son, can't go to heaven. Sons perform death rituals." In
Catholicism, there is a
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available only to the living), thus women unable to bring a pregnancy to term would be told they would not encounter their children's souls in an afterlife. The original doctrine was that these fetuses or babies were consigned to hell, resulting in a latter-day practice called
70:
and thus place a high value on clan, lineage and perpetuation of family legacy. In these cultures, childlessness may be viewed as a "tragedy for the whole community" beyond the personal significance for infertile or childless individuals. However, even in a prototypically
75:, 42 percent of women tested in a study of the emotional consequences of infertility were found to have "global distress levels in the clinically significant range," in part due to social norms that judge women without children to be "unnatural and selfish."
192:
Stigma cannot be broken in silence. Healthcare policies and education should increase discussion of infertility without shaming infertile people. Men may have more power in their communities; their experiences must be
148:
In some societies, women with children are allowed access to certain community resources and privileges from which childless women may be excluded, thus children act as a sort of universal passport to humanity.
357:"Multicultural Considerations in Infertility Counseling" Article 18 Paper based on a program presented at 2015 ACA Annual Conference, March 11–15, 2015, Orlando, FL. Ebru Buluc-Halper and Paul W. Griffin, url=
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quarantine to prevent the "contagion" or "toxin" of non-reproduction from spreading within the community. Infertile people are also viewed as sad people who may bring
43:
stigmas are related to disability or physical-deformity stigmas and violation-of-group-norm stigmas. Infertility is a "deeply intimate matter, often deemed as
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An individual's ability to deflect or resist stigma may depend on array of intersecting age, gender, class, economic, and/or psychological factors.
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879:
705:
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115:, infertility bears an ancient social stigma. An archaic term for the condition of female infertility, present in the Old Testament, is
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35:, however, in many traditional cultures, women are held responsible for child-rearing and thus for pregnancy or the lack thereof.
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290:"The social and cultural meanings of infertility for men and women in Zambia: legacy, family and divine intervention"
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in
English), "The first of the seven conditions under which a wife may be repudiated is infecundity."
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Spiritual recourse (prayer for fecundity, or alternately, submission to the will of a deity or power)
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Books To Read If You're
Struggling With Infertility Or Pregnancy Loss Kristyn Hodgdon Mar 9, 2021
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Miles, Laura M.; Keitel, Merle; Jackson, Margo; Harris, Abigail; Licciardi, Fred (August 2009).
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Most academic study of infertility addresses expensive treatment technologies, rather than the "
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Medical interventions or quasi-medical treatments; the ancient Greeks called childless women
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Roberts, Lisa; Renati, Solomon; Solomon, Shreeletha; Montgomery, Susanne (2020-11-06).
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436:"Women and Infertility in a Pronatalist Culture: Mental Health in the Slums of Mumbai"
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685:"Women are reclaiming the word 'barren' to talk about their fertility issues"
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9 Books That Helped Me
Through My Infertility Alexandra Kimball May 10, 2019
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834:"Why belief in 'Limbo' has disappeared in recent decades – Queen's Research"
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949:"Stigma and Everyday Resistance Practices: Childless Women in South India"
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that past wrong choices have resulted in the placement of an infertility
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86:" effects. In more-developed countries, the widespread availability of
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121:. There have been three traditional means of addressing infertility:
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763:"China's Traditional Family, Its Characteristics and Disintegration"
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infecundity." In traditional
Chinese family structure (called the
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realm of one's ancestors and consequently scatters all ancestral
591:"Predictors of distress in women being treated for infertility"
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Howe, S.; Zulu, J. M.; Boivin, J.; Gerrits, T. (2020-10-08).
810:"Can we build a bridge between childless women and mothers?"
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A study of infertility experiences in Zambia concluded:
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Obladen, Michael (July 2021), Obladen, Michael (ed.),
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Stigmas may be particularly acute in communities that
381:"Consequences of infertility in developing countries"
636:
Whiteford, Linda M.; Gonzalez, Lois (January 1995).
498:"How Women Around the World Cope With Infertility"
190:
866:, Oxford University Press, pp. 397–402,
595:Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology
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860:"Revived for paradise: Respite sanctuaries"
638:"Stigma: The hidden burden of infertility"
906:Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science
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552:"The Stigma of Involuntary Childlessness"
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23:this demonstration is penalized. Both
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526:World Health Organization (who.int)
872:10.1093/med/9780198854807.003.0057
294:Facts, Views & Vision in ObGyn
178:into wandering ghosts and demons (
88:assisted reproductive technologies
14:
808:Slawson, Nicola (20 March 2023).
550:Miall, Charlene E. (April 1986).
814:thesinglesupplement.substack.com
68:organize themselves collectively
244:Cultural variations in adoption
864:Oxford Textbook of the Newborn
683:Miranda Larbi (31 July 2019).
496:Springen, Karen (2008-09-14).
379:Rouchou, Brittany (May 2013).
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642:Social Science & Medicine
385:Perspectives in Public Health
107:As one scholar put it, "Like
767:American Sociological Review
654:10.1016/0277-9536(94)00124-c
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965:10.1177/089124300014001007
704:Flemming, Rebecca (2013).
249:Human reproductive ecology
900:Phan, Chánh Công (1993).
607:10.1080/02646830802350880
157:for stillborn babies (as
397:10.1177/1757913912472415
219:Third-party reproduction
95:, thus accelerating the
918:10.1163/030382493X00161
761:Lee, Shu-Ching (1953).
224:Stratified reproduction
57:voluntary childlessness
16:Form of social judgment
254:Fertility and religion
204:Reproductive privilege
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59:is often considered a
47:to discuss publicly."
1036:Cultural anthropology
722:10.1353/bhm.2013.0064
453:10.2147/IJWH.S273149
1041:Kinship and descent
168:respite sanctuaries
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953:Gender and Society
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33:stigmatized
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690:2023-04-13
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270:References
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973:0891-2432
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787:0003-1224
730:1086-3176
662:0277-9536
623:144386113
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405:1757-9139
306:2032-0418
193:included.
163:sacrament
934:24491690
748:24362276
502:Newsweek
472:33192102
421:25953224
413:23327901
324:33123694
229:Shunning
198:See also
176:linh hon
113:epilepsy
795:2087881
739:3904772
670:7899919
463:7654515
315:7580265
234:Ableism
159:baptism
127:ateknos
109:leprosy
102:sadness
31:can be
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161:is a
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45:taboo
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