Constructions of 'infertility' and some lived experiences of involuntary childlessness

This paper draws on data from a feminist, qualitative social work research project on women's experiences of involuntary childlessness in the context of assisted reproduction. It is argued that the dominant construction of 'infertility' is partial, biased and inaccurate and that it serves to maintain infertility as a 'woman's problem' to be ideally addressed via biomedicine and individualised approaches to service delivery. With reference to the background literature, women's lived experiences of involuntary childlessness are explored. An alternative, multidimensional construction of 'involuntary childlessness' is proposed, implications for social work in reproductive health and directions for further research are presented.