The ART clock: Temporal limits to assisted reproduction

Abstract

Conceptualizations of the ‘biological clock’ in popular imaginary in the USA centre on the temporal limits of fertility, with assisted reproductive technology (ART) an increasingly proposed answer to these constraints (at least in the public imaginary). In this study, I analyse how surrogates in the USA understand their own bioavailability for others’ reproductive needs in the commercial ART market vis-à-vis their own reproductive trajectories. Based on interview data with gestational surrogates, I propose a new concept of the ‘ART clock’ to capture how time shapes the experiences of reproductive workers in the US fertility clinic. My findings point to four important ART time-related issues: (i) women desiring to extend their own ‘biological clocks’ via surrogacy; (ii) significant time being needed to achieve and sustain third-party pregnancy; (iii) women extending their total reproductive time via repeat surrogacy ‘journeys’; and (iv) temporal constraints to surrogacy reproduction regarding time of year, the day-to-day time effort, the number of surrogacy journeys, the total number of pregnancies, and surrogates’ age and the ages of their children. Each of these aspects point to important ways that reproductive desire and time shape the labour of reproductive workers, highlighting temporal constraints to assisted reproduction and limits to ART as a solution to delayed reproduction and the biological clock.