TY - JOUR
T1 - Protective Relational Factors of Lesbian Couples Navigating the Fertility Process
AU - Rausch, Meredith A.
AU - Wikoff, Haley D.
N1 - Funding Information:
Purposive sampling narrowed the pool of potential participants and captured couples with fertility experiences (Yin, ). Eligible participants were English speaking, self-identified lesbians over the age of 18, in a coupled relationship, and who had used or were currently using a fertility treatment process to achieve pregnancy. The national organization, Family Equality, gave permission to disseminate information via a group Facebook page to their members and followers. We then provided interested parties with a link to a Qualtrics survey used to gather demographic information and schedule a phone or face-to-face interview. Each interested participant interviewed either individually or with their partner/spouse. This research received funding from a student grant from ALGBTIC (now SAIGE) to compensate participants. This funding determined the number of compensated participants.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Little research about lesbian couples’ experiences with fertility treatment exists in the counseling literature. While there is an increase in lesbian couples exploring fertility options to expand their families, it is important to understand their experiences during this stressful process. This research seeks to understand these experiences using Moustakas’ Imaginative Variation method with seven lesbian couples. Results include feelings of isolation, psychological and physical stress. Despite myriad difficulties associated with assisted reproductive technology, participants’ experiences show the presence of strong relationship factors, divided into three categories: connectedness, mutuality, and resilience. The use of Relational Cultural Theory may be helpful to lesbian couples looking to expand their families through reproductive methods.
AB - Little research about lesbian couples’ experiences with fertility treatment exists in the counseling literature. While there is an increase in lesbian couples exploring fertility options to expand their families, it is important to understand their experiences during this stressful process. This research seeks to understand these experiences using Moustakas’ Imaginative Variation method with seven lesbian couples. Results include feelings of isolation, psychological and physical stress. Despite myriad difficulties associated with assisted reproductive technology, participants’ experiences show the presence of strong relationship factors, divided into three categories: connectedness, mutuality, and resilience. The use of Relational Cultural Theory may be helpful to lesbian couples looking to expand their families through reproductive methods.
KW - assisted reproductive technology
KW - counselor
KW - Fertility
KW - lesbian
KW - qualitative research
KW - relational cultural theory
KW - relationship
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U2 - 10.1080/00918369.2022.2042660
DO - 10.1080/00918369.2022.2042660
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85125302093
JO - Journal of Homosexuality
JF - Journal of Homosexuality
SN - 0091-8369
ER -