The ‘natural’ body,God and contraceptive use in the southeastern United States

Data collected among African‐American and Caucasian women and men in the southeastern USA indicate that participants' perceptions of nature, God's will and the human body influence reproductive health and decision‐making. Attitudes about the health care system, pharmaceutical companies and government programmes for fertility regulation reinforce these views and may negatively affect willingness to use contraceptive methods consistently and correctly.     

Nursing the clinic and managing emotions in a fertility unit: Findings from an ethnographic study

This paper presents the findings from an ethnographic study of a fertility unit. Data were collected using participant observation and semi-structured interviews over a period of 2 years. Fifteen patients and 23 members of staff were interviewed. Data analysis was completed using a modified thematic analysis. The findings indicated that the emotions evoked by infertility and medical treatments were powerful and frightening. Patients managed their emotions privately although they were conscious of an emotional awareness by nurses, which they described as ‘caring’. Nurses were associated strongly with caring and their role was primarily to manage emotions; however, to do this, nurses used noncaring (emotional distance) rather than caring. Nurses were responsible for managing emotions in the public spaces of the clinics and moved between emotional distance and awareness according to the needs of the clinic. In this article, it is argued that non-caring was a defence against anxiety about coping with painful feelings and that the nursing role was to ‘nurse the clinic and the doctor’ rather than the patient.     

Elderly women in a Hungarian village: Childlessness,generativity, and social control

This study considers the meaning of biological and cultural continuity, and the changing roles of older women in general and childless elderly women in particular in a Hungarian rural community, Cserepfalu. Data gathered from participant observation, life histories, and formal and informal interviews are supplemented with statistical, archival, secondary, and other documented material. After a glance at how childlessness is conceptualized in Cserepfalu, an overview of the social history, economy, demography, and ideology of the village is given. Then women's roles in the domestic economy, courting customs, and reproductive strategies are examined from a diachronic perspective. Finally it is suggested that, increasingly during the past four decades of radical, community-threatening social change, older women, including the childless, assumed the generative role of Kulturtrager (upholder, perpetuator of culture). They endeavor to guard selected, emically meaningful elements from the past, labor to govern the present, and thus attempt to guide the young thereby ensuring the future of their community.     

Praxis arztlicher Kooperation am Beispiel eines speziellen Berichtsbogens

Summary: The cooperation in cases of childlessness between andrologists and gynecologists is an essential of any treatment. In a short communication it was shown that a special investigation form can be helpful for reciprocal information. This investigation form improves the information rate form 10% to 30%. In some cases the form were sent back to the authors but not to the doctor …. a special sign for cooperation?     

Effects of medical causes,role concepts and treatment stages on quality of life in involuntary childless men

Goal of this study was to investigate differences in quality of life in men contingent upon various fertility treatment stages, infertility causes and adoption of roles. A quantitative study with n = 115 men in three German fertility centres was devised. Participants completed a standardised, fertility‐specific questionnaire devised for men (TLMK), sociodemographic and role items. Men having experienced severe medical conditions, for example cancer, reported significant higher quality of life compared to men with other infertility reasons [F(1,56) = 12.77, P = 0.001]. Furthermore, allocating participants into distinctive groups by means of kind and duration of treatment revealed significant group differences [F(2,111) = 4.94, P = 0.009], with quality of life decreasing with the use of more invasive fertility methods. A higher satisfaction with life was also stated by men adopting many tasks in the treatment process. The high quality of life displayed by men having experienced severe medical conditions contains valuable and far‐reaching information about possible resilience factors that need to be researched more in detail. The finding of decreasing quality of life in men with the use of more invasive methods in treatment applies for increased psychosocial services in fertility clinics.     

The 'wish to have a child', childlessness and infertility in Germany

BACKGROUND: Based on the declining birth rates in Germany, one might assume that the number of people who unintentionally are without children is growing. However, studies over recent years have documented that the number of people who deliberately have no children is growing instead. METHODS: This report focuses on attitudes and motives which influence the realization of the desire to have a child. In a representative survey, 785 women and 795 men were questioned about their current wish to have a child, their ideal number of children and the motives for or against the decision to have a child. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Emotional aspects are the most important motives in favour of having children, and financial restraints are most frequently cited as arguments against parenthood in German society. Thus, deciding in favour or against having children still appears to be an indicator of social disparity, due to the fact that every realized child wish underlines the differences between parents and childless individuals through the increasing financial burdens. As a large number of individuals and couples in Germany postpone realization of their desire to have a child, this may lead to a change from a voluntary to an involuntary childlessness in the individual decision process. Therefore, education about fertility as a resource should be promoted.     

Infertility in central Africa

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence and risk factors of primary and secondary infertility in the four Central African countries of Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic and Gabon. METHODS: Primary infertility was approximated by the percentage of women childless after at least 5 years of marriage. The percentage with no birth at least 5 years subsequent to a previous birth was considered to have secondary infertility. Logistic regression and discrete logistic regression models were estimated to determine the risk factors of primary and secondary infertility, respectively. The relatively few women who were defined as infertile and reported using a traditional or modern method of contraception at survey date were considered fertile to reduce bias from falsely classifying effective contraceptive users as infertile. RESULTS: The prevalence of infertility was highest in Central African Republic and lowest in Chad: primary infertility ranged from 6.9% to 3.1% and secondary infertility for women aged 20-44 years ranged from 26.5% to 18.9%. Women married more than once vs. only once and formerly married women vs. women living with their husbands had higher odds of primary and secondary infertility. Also, younger cohorts had relatively higher risks of primary (born after 1970) and secondary infertility (born after 1960) compared with women born before 1960. In contrast, place of residence, religion, education of wife or husband and socio-economic status were generally not associated with primary or secondary infertility. CONCLUSIONS: Infertility is still prevalent in Central Africa and new interventions aimed at reducing the incidence and social implications of pathologic infertility are needed.