title: Toward theoretical understanding of the fertility preservation decision-making process: examining information processing among young women with cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Young women with cancer now face the complex decision about whether to undergo fertility preservation. Yet little is known about how these women process information involved in making this decision.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this article is to expand theoretical understanding of the decision-making process by examining aspects of information processing among young women diagnosed with cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a grounded theory approach, 27 women with cancer participated in individual, semistructured interviews. Data were coded and analyzed using constant-comparison techniques that were guided by 5 dimensions within the Contemplate phase of the decision-making process framework.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the first dimension, young women acquired information primarily from clinicians and Internet sources. Experiential information, often obtained from peers, occurred in the second dimension. Preferences and values were constructed in the third dimension as women acquired factual, moral, and ethical information. Women desired tailored, personalized information that was specific to their situation in the fourth dimension; however, women struggled with communicating these needs to clinicians. In the fifth dimension, women offered detailed descriptions of clinician behaviors that enhance or impede decisional debriefing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Better understanding of theoretical underpinnings surrounding women's information processes can facilitate decision support and improve clinical care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. phersh@uic.edu
authors.forename: Patricia E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Hershberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Lorna
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Finnegan
authors.affiliation: Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Altfeld
authors.affiliation: Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lake
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Chicago, Fertility Centers of Illinois, Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hirshfeld-Cytron
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D059247:Fertility Preservation / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors