{"title":"\"Denied the Joys of Motherhood\": Infertility and Medicine in French Interwar Advice Columns","authors":"Margaret Andersen","doi":"10.1353/bhm.2023.a922707","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>summary:</p><p>The interwar period was marked by developments in fertility medicine and intense concerns about the national birthrate in France. This article explores how physicians leading new specialized fertility clinics promoted the idea that their work treating infertility medically would produce more births for France. It also shows how women's magazines in the 1930s presented new treatment options to their female readership, offering them reassurance and medical advice. Women wrote into advice columns about their experiences with involuntary childlessness, sometimes expressing reluctance to seek fertility testing or continue recommended treatments. Prominent fertility specialists also contributed articles, complete with illustrations, explaining the medical causes of infertility and describing available treatments. These magazines conveyed the message that modern medicine, especially hormonal treatments, offered effective solutions for infertility. Consistent with the dominant pronatalist messages of the period, women were urged to accept medical solutions so they could assume the socially expected role of motherhood.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":55304,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the History of Medicine","volume":"148 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Bulletin of the History of Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.2023.a922707","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
summary:
The interwar period was marked by developments in fertility medicine and intense concerns about the national birthrate in France. This article explores how physicians leading new specialized fertility clinics promoted the idea that their work treating infertility medically would produce more births for France. It also shows how women's magazines in the 1930s presented new treatment options to their female readership, offering them reassurance and medical advice. Women wrote into advice columns about their experiences with involuntary childlessness, sometimes expressing reluctance to seek fertility testing or continue recommended treatments. Prominent fertility specialists also contributed articles, complete with illustrations, explaining the medical causes of infertility and describing available treatments. These magazines conveyed the message that modern medicine, especially hormonal treatments, offered effective solutions for infertility. Consistent with the dominant pronatalist messages of the period, women were urged to accept medical solutions so they could assume the socially expected role of motherhood.
期刊介绍：
A leading journal in its field for more than three quarters of a century, the Bulletin spans the social, cultural, and scientific aspects of the history of medicine worldwide. Every issue includes reviews of recent books on medical history. Recurring sections include Digital Humanities & Public History and Pedagogy. Bulletin of the History of Medicine is the official publication of the American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM) and the Johns Hopkins Institute of the History of Medicine.
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