Yael Benyamini , Maayan Bat-Chen Abramov , Elinor Dori , Ronit D. Leichtentritt
{"title":"“No strength to stop”: Persevering in fertility treatment despite repeated failures – A qualitative investigation","authors":"Yael Benyamini , Maayan Bat-Chen Abramov , Elinor Dori , Ronit D. Leichtentritt","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103176","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fertility treatments foster hope of fulfilling the desire for parenthood. However, the difficulties they entail and the decreasing success rates over time raise questions regarding discontinuing treatment, a difficult decision that often happens because of financial constraints. Israel is a highly pronatalist country, where fertility treatments are mostly covered by the State. Thus, it serves as a living laboratory to study the psychological processes involved in decisions about treatment continuation after repeated failures, setting aside financial considerations. We aimed to examine the decision-making process women undergo when choosing to continue in-vitro-fertilization (IVF) despite low odds of success, and the strategies they implement in carrying out the decision to continue. We conducted in-depth interviews with fourteen women, ages 33–45, who had undergone between 4 and 28 IVF cycles. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings showed no evidence of deliberation or hesitation in the decision process, as informants raised no doubts concerning treatment continuation. This confident stance was rooted in three themes: (a) personal, interpersonal, and social motivations; (b) an inability to identify alternatives; and (c) strategies for keeping motivation and optimism, even when the objective chances of success were low. Interpreting the findings from decision-making, self-regulation and self-identity perspectives, suggests that the seemingly irrational perseverance in treatment may be rational, given the social context in which the women are operating. The study raises the need for support in decision-making along the treatment process and for promoting social discourse that legitimizes broader acceptance of diverse family structures and attitudes towards parenthood.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"112 ","pages":"Article 103176"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Womens Studies International Forum","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539525001256","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"WOMENS STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Fertility treatments foster hope of fulfilling the desire for parenthood. However, the difficulties they entail and the decreasing success rates over time raise questions regarding discontinuing treatment, a difficult decision that often happens because of financial constraints. Israel is a highly pronatalist country, where fertility treatments are mostly covered by the State. Thus, it serves as a living laboratory to study the psychological processes involved in decisions about treatment continuation after repeated failures, setting aside financial considerations. We aimed to examine the decision-making process women undergo when choosing to continue in-vitro-fertilization (IVF) despite low odds of success, and the strategies they implement in carrying out the decision to continue. We conducted in-depth interviews with fourteen women, ages 33–45, who had undergone between 4 and 28 IVF cycles. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings showed no evidence of deliberation or hesitation in the decision process, as informants raised no doubts concerning treatment continuation. This confident stance was rooted in three themes: (a) personal, interpersonal, and social motivations; (b) an inability to identify alternatives; and (c) strategies for keeping motivation and optimism, even when the objective chances of success were low. Interpreting the findings from decision-making, self-regulation and self-identity perspectives, suggests that the seemingly irrational perseverance in treatment may be rational, given the social context in which the women are operating. The study raises the need for support in decision-making along the treatment process and for promoting social discourse that legitimizes broader acceptance of diverse family structures and attitudes towards parenthood.
期刊介绍:
Women"s Studies International Forum (formerly Women"s Studies International Quarterly, established in 1978) is a bimonthly journal to aid the distribution and exchange of feminist research in the multidisciplinary, international area of women"s studies and in feminist research in other disciplines. The policy of the journal is to establish a feminist forum for discussion and debate. The journal seeks to critique and reconceptualize existing knowledge, to examine and re-evaluate the manner in which knowledge is produced and distributed, and to assess the implications this has for women"s lives.