Social Perceptions of Infertility
Read this tip to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Infertility Overview and other Infertility topics.
Social Perceptions of Infertility
Within most societies, there is an expectation that when people marry, or become a couple, children will soon follow. Society, in general, expects couples to reproduce in order to maintain both population and social status.
In many countries, children are needed to help support the family, assist with farm labor and, sadly, to replace children who have died due to prevalent disease. When couples do not have children, those around them may question their relationship, or motives, for not conceiving.
For couples who wish to have children and cannot do so, due to infertility, the situation becomes more than simply a social one. Questions by friends, family and others, produce not only pain, but embarrassment, as if infertility were a choice, rather than a medical disease. And these questions are sometimes hard to respond to, with understanding and without anger or frustration.
Though community education about infertility, and the growing societal awareness about the disease, is making strides in limiting the sometimes prejudicial impressions voiced by those who cannot understand the pain of infertility, it still requires the couple dealing with infertility, to provide education to family and friends about the impact of the condition, and of the questions.
| Guru Spotlight |
| Byron White |
