In-vitro metaphors: ART beneficiaries' meaning-making about human embryos in the context of IVF in Portugal

Adolescent Development and the Parent-Adolescent Relationship in Diverse Family Forms Created by Assisted Reproduction

Assisted reproduction techniques (ARTs) are employed by single individuals and couples who are not otherwise able to conceive spontaneously. While the use of ARTs is increasing, research is lacking on the attempts made by adolescent offspring conceived via ARTs to integrate their ART conception into their identity and negotiate a connection with, and autonomy from, their parents. The present article reviews studies investigating adolescent development and the parent-adolescent relationship in diverse family forms created by ARTs (mainly heterosexual and lesbian parent families), and discusses the results in light of attachment, identity development, and emotional distance regulation theories. Overall, the results indicate that the psychological adjustment of adolescents conceived via ARTs is not undermined by the manner of their conception, and that they enjoy positive relationships with their parents with no difference from those enjoyed by spontaneously conceived adolescents. However, it remains unknown whether the development of a reproductive identity in adolescence is likely to influence adolescents' interest in searching for or contacting their donors, surrogates, and/or donor siblings. The results suggest the relevance of considering the parent-adolescent relationship, disclosure, and identity formation issues when planning psychological counseling and support interventions with ART parents and their adolescent offspring, and emphasize the need to further investigate these aspects in diverse ART families, including single-, gay-, bisexual-, and trans*-parent families.

Health Information Needs of Couples Undergoing Assisted Reproductive Techniques

Background

Couples undergoing Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) come across various information needs. This study aimed to identify the health information needs of couples undergoing ART.

Materials and Methods

The methodology of the present applied study was qualitative and the research method was conventional qualitative content analysis performed with the participation of 25 infertile couples under ART. The study took nine months (July 2020 to March 2021). The samples were objectively screened based on the criteria from the couples referred to the infertility center affiliated to Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (Public) and Ome-Leila Specialized infertility clinic (Private) in Bandar Abbas (Iran). Data collection was performed by semi-structured interviews. The typical content analysis method was used in this research. Data analysis was carried out based on coding by the use of MAXQDA a software for qualitative and mixed methods data analysis.

Results

Information needs of couples under ART were categorized into three main categories and ten subcategories: 1) main cause of infertility [feminine or masculine cause, and etiology (nature and origin)], 2) treatment of infertility [identifying ART, treatment success rate, complications and risks (outcomes) of the treatment method, and treatment duration], and 3) healthcare [advice on medication, healthy nutrition (diet), sexual relations, and daily routine].

Conclusions

The results of this study emphasize that the country's health officials, especially those in charge of the healthcare of infertile couples under ART, must necessarily pay more attention to meeting the needs of this group of people in society.

‘Focusing and Unfocusing’—Cognitive, Evaluative, and Emotional Dynamics in the Relationship with Human Embryos among ART Beneficiaries

This article uses data gathered from a study conducted in Portugal to examine the (plural and composite) conceptions that doctors, embryologists, and beneficiaries of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) have of the in vitro human embryo. Taking the sociology of engagements, developed by Thévenot, as its theoretical lens, the article draws on a total of 69 interviews with ART patients to analyse the plurality of fluid meanings produced about this biological entity, whose status is neither static nor universal. ART beneficiaries are likely to produce plural conceptions of the lab-generated embryo within the framework of different regimes of engagement, understood as cognitive and evaluative formats. These various pragmatic regimes, in turn, entail distinct emotional investments. When speaking about their relationship with embryos, beneficiaries therefore express plural emotional experiences, which are articulated using terms such as affection, love, detachment, loss, frustration, hope, mourning, and anguish. Using the theoretical framework of the sociology of engagements, we propose an approach that enables us to produce a detailed record of the connections between the cognitive, evaluative, and emotional dimensions in beneficiaries’ relationship with—and decision-making processes about—the embryos, accounting for the plasticity of emotional states linked to the (re)configuration of attributed meanings.