Psychological distress and in vitro fertilization outcome.

Objective: To examine whether psychological distress predicts IVF treatment outcome as well as whether IVF treatment outcome predicts subsequent psychological distress.

Design: Prospective cohort study over an 18-month period.

Setting: Five community and academic fertility practices.

Preterm delivery and low birth weight in singleton pregnancies conceived by women with and without a history of infertility.

Objective: To determine predictors of low birth weight (LBW) and preterm delivery (PTD) in singleton pregnancies conceived by women with and without a history of infertility.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Eleven infertility clinics in northern California.

Expensive but worth it: older parents' attitudes and opinions about the costs and insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization.

Objective: To describe older parents' attitudes and opinions about the costs and insurance coverage for IVF.

Design: Qualitative interview study.

Setting: Two Northern California IVF practices.

"There is such a thing as too many daughters, but not too many sons": A qualitative study of son preference and fetal sex selection among Indian immigrants in the United States.

In response to concerns from feminists, demographers, bioethicists, journalists, and health care professionals, the Indian government passed legislation in 1994 and 2003 prohibiting the use of sex selection technology and sex-selective abortion. In contrast, South Asian families immigrating to the United States find themselves in an environment where reproductive choice is protected by law and technologies enabling sex selection are readily available. Yet there has been little research exploring immigrant Indian women's narratives about the pressure they face to have sons, the process of deciding to utilize sex selection technologies, and the physical and emotional health implications of both son preference and sex selection.

Costs of infertility treatment: results from an 18-month prospective cohort study.

Objective: To examine resource use (costs) by women presenting for infertility evaluation and treatment over 18 months, regardless of treatment pursued.

Design: Prospective cohort study in which women were followed for 18 months.

Setting: Eight infertility practices.

Fertility treatments and outcomes among couples seeking fertility care: data from a prospective fertility cohort in the United States.

Objective: To determine the relationship between number of fertility treatment cycles and pregnancy rates.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Eight community and academic infertility practices.

Predictors of not pursuing infertility treatment after an infertility diagnosis: examination of a prospective U.S. cohort.

We studied a prospective cohort of 434 couples in Northern California and found that 13% did not pursue any form of infertility treatment after their initial consultation. Although age, education, and financial concerns remain important for patients in choosing whether to pursue infertility treatment, depressive symptoms may also be a barrier to achieving reproductive goals.

What do patients want? Expectations and perceptions of IVF clinic information and support regarding frozen embryo disposition.

Objective: To describe frozen embryo holders' expectations and perceptions of IVF clinic information, support, and storage fees and their relevance to embryo disposition decision making.

Design: Qualitative interview study.

Setting: Three northern California IVF practices.

The use of complementary and alternative fertility treatment in couples seeking fertility care: data from a prospective cohort in the United States.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use among couples seeking fertility care and to identify the predictors of CAM use in this population.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Eight community and academic infertility practices.

How couples who have undergone in vitro fertilization decide what to do with surplus frozen embryos.

In a qualitative interview study of 77 families with stored frozen embryos, we found that while embryo disposition decision making was influenced by individual life circumstances, embryo quantity/quality, personal values, embryo conceptualization, and clinic information, it was a stepwise process that could be represented as three sequential questions: (1) Will the embryos be used for additional attempts at conception? If not, (2) Will the embryos remain in storage? And if not, (3) Will the embryos be donated to other people or to science, or will they be destroyed? While almost two-thirds (63%) of participants kept their embryos in storage after 5 years, either passively through disagreement or indecision or actively to maintain embryo potential, avert feelings of loss, or as psychological or genetic "insurance," IVF clinic support and detailed information about options motivated families to make disposition decisions.

The ethics of sex selection: a comparison of the attitudes and experiences of primary care physicians and physician providers of clinical sex selection services.

Objective: To compare the perspectives of primary care physicians (PCPs) and physician sex-selection technology providers (SSTPs) about the ethics of sex selection.

Design: Qualitative interview study.

Setting(s): Academic, private, and HMO-based infertility and general medical practices.

The challenge of providing infertility services to a low-income immigrant Latino population.

Objective: To provide insight into the experience of low-income immigrant Latino couples seeking infertility treatment.

Design: Qualitative interview study.

Setting: Infertility clinic at a university-affiliated urban public teaching hospital.

Older Motherhood and the Changing Life Course in the Era of Assisted Reproductive Technologies.

Midlife, once a focus of particular interest to gerontologists because of its implications for later life, has recently received little attention. But as new reproductive technologies have expanded in the United States, motherhood is occurring at older ages. While older motherhood is not a new social practice, what is unique is that an increasing number of women are becoming pregnant through technological means, often for the first time, at the end of their reproductive cycle.

How parents whose children have been conceived with donor gametes make their disclosure decision: contexts, influences, and couple dynamics.

Objective: To describe parents' disclosure decision-making process.

Design: In-depth ethnographic interviews.

Setting: Participants were recruited from 11 medical infertility practices and 1 sperm bank in Northern California.

Strategies for disclosure: how parents approach telling their children that they were conceived with donor gametes.

Objective: To describe how parents envision, plan, and enact disclosing to their children that they were conceived with donor gametes.

Design: In-depth ethnographic interviews.

Setting: Participants were recruited from 11 medical infertility practices and 1 sperm bank in Northern California.

Rethinking the biological clock: eleventh-hour moms, miracle moms and meanings of age-related infertility.

Over the past generation, aging and female reproduction have been lodged within the gendered and gendering debates regarding women's involvement in the workforce and demographic shifts toward delayed parenting that culminate in discourses on the "biological clock". Technological solutions to the biological clock, specifically in vitro fertilization, have led to clinical attempts to assess "ovarian reserve", or qualitative and quantitative changes in the ovary that correlate with aging and with successful infertility treatment. Rupturing the longstanding historical connections between menstruation and female reproductive capacity by specifically focusing on the aging of a woman's eggs, the clinical designation of "diminished ovarian reserve" has come to imply that a woman has "old eggs".

Infertility among low-income Latinos.

Objective: To explore the experience of infertility among low-income Latinos.

Design: Ethnographic qualitative interview study.

Setting: Academic research environment.

International disparities in access to infertility services.

Objective: To characterize the international availability of infertility services.

Design: A PubMed computer search to identify relevant articles.

Setting: Academic medical center.

Parents' conceptualization of their frozen embryos complicates the disposition decision.

Objective: To ascertain what couples think about their embryos and how they approach making a decision about disposition in light of the fact that the disposition of unused frozen embryos has significant implications for medical research and embryo donation.

Design: Ethnographic qualitative interview study.

Setting: Academic research environment.

Resemblance talk: a challenge for parents whose children were conceived with donor gametes in the US.

The normative folk model of kinship in the US continues to attach great significance to "blood" relationships. These implicit genetic links are commonly reinforced through observations about a child's physical similarity to parents or other family members, i.e.