title: Heterosexual couples' uses and meanings of ovarian stimulation: Relatedness, embodiment and emotions.
abstract: This article is about how ovarian stimulation is understood within the context of heterosexual couples' relationships. The empirical research involves 15 semi-structured interviews with patients in Portugal who have undergone IVF programmes performed with eggs collected in stimulated cycles. We argue that the uses and meanings of ovarian stimulation expressed in the patients' narratives represent situated values and knowledges conveyed by existing emotional resources within multiple gendered relations and identities. We discuss how empirical reconfigurations work in a mode of conversion of physical and emotional pain so that the application of subcutaneous injections to women's bodies makes sense within IVF couples' daily routine and in their conjugal relationship. The different practices of men's involvement in the injection of hormones into women's bodies are perceived as emotional moments, and men's cooperation and/ or protection seems to be essential in this domain. The cultural assumptions underlying women's duties regarding maternity reinforce a moral framework in which the pain and the complications associated with the ovarian stimulation are naturalized, normalized and accepted.
authors.affiliation: University of Porto, Portugal. susilva@med.up.pt.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Machado
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D020010:Heterosexuality / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007246:Infertility / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D010062:Ovulation Induction / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D011174:Portugal; D011247:Pregnancy; D018873:Pregnancy Rate