Welcome and Overview
Hello and welcome to the Experiences of Infertility and Fertility Treatment digital resource. If you or someone you know is experiencing fertility problems or going through fertility treatment, this resource is for you.
On it, you can watch and listen to video and audio-recorded* stories of 25 people living in Australia sharing their experiences of infertility and fertility treatment. You can also find short ‘explainers’ about different aspects of infertility and fertility treatment, and links to other credible sources of information and support.
The 25 women and gender diverse people presumed female at birth who generously shared their stories for this resource were aged from 26 to 54 years when we met them. They lived in different places across Australia, came from a range of backgrounds, and had varied experiences of fertility problems and treatment.#
Watch a preview of the stories
To learn about their experiences, you can either navigate by theme (Talking Points) or by individual story (People’s Profiles).
Talking Points
These are short films of between 6 – 13 minutes duration (on average) that touch on people’s experiences of and thoughts about:
- Wanting to become a parent and trying to conceive
- Fertility testing and causes of infertility
- Fertility treatment (including genetic testing) and self-management
- Donor conception and surrogacy
- Experiences with health practitioners and health services
- Seeking information and support
- Becoming a parent – or not
- Infertility, relationships and work
- Reflections and advice for others
People’s Profiles
People’s individual stories are grouped according to what stage people are at in their fertility journeys:
- Have not tried fertility treatment
- Pre-treatment
- In treatment
- Stopped mid-treatment
- Pregnant (following fertility treatment)
- Completed treatment (successful)
- Completed treatment (unsuccessful)
- Taking a break
You will also find links to a comprehensive range of resources and websites on our Further Resources page and at the end of individual Talking Points.
We hope you find the stories, information, and resources here engaging and useful.
To find out about the research team, project Reference Group and other advisors who developed this resource in collaboration with the interviewees, please see Credits.
* Please note that all interviews were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic and were therefore recorded in people’s homes using Microsoft Teams. As a result, the recording quality varies across different interviews.
# The stories presented on the site are not intended to be representative of ‘common’ experiences, but rather the widest possible range of experiences of infertility and/or fertility treatment.
Language
For this resource and the research behind it we have endeavoured to use inclusive language with regard to gender. While we consulted with LGBTQI+ Health Australia as well as Professor Damien W. Riggs (Flinders University) about the wording used on the resource, we take responsibility for the language chosen and acknowledge that terminology in this area is constantly changing and evolving, therefore the descriptions we have used may not be acceptable to some. There are also some references to the contested distinction between ‘medical’ and ‘social’ infertility1, however, these are confined to where research participants themselves used these terms.
Partnering with
1 Dempsey, D., Power, J. & Kelly, F. (2020). A perfect storm of intervention? Lesbian and cisgender queer women conceiving through Australian fertility clinics, Critical Public Health, 32(2): 206-216. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2020.1810636