Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:45:18.893Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 18 - A Racially and Culturally Sensitive Approach to Fertility Counseling

from IV - Addressing the Needs of Diverse Populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2022

Sharon N. Covington
Affiliation:
Shady Grove Fertility, Rockville, MD
Get access

Summary

Fertility counselors see an array of clients who may be diverse in terms of countries of origin, ethnicity, race and/or cultural background. This chapter identifies principles to guide this conversation. These principles include understanding how we consider race, ethnicity and culture, and emphasize the importance of not essentializing race, ethnicity and culture. The chapter continues with a brief overview of the meaning and consequences of infertility in various places worldwide and among migrant and racial minorities in particular, how this can affect access to, use of and experiences with fertility treatments and assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). Finally, we offer considerations for racially and culturally sensitive clinical approaches in fertility counseling.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Culley, L, Hudson, N, Rooij, F van, Eds. Marginalized Reproduction: Ethnicity, Infertility, and Reproductive Technologies. London: Earthscan, 2009.Google Scholar
Lo, MCM, Stacey, CL. Beyond cultural competency: Bourdieu, patients and clinical encounters. Sociology Health Illness 2008;30(5):741755.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradby, H, Nazroo, J. Health, ethnicity and race. In: Cockerham, WC, Ed. The New Companion to Medical Sociology. Malden MA: Blackwell, 2010, 113129.Google Scholar
Hampshire, K, Simpson, B, Eds. Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the Third Phase: Global Encounters and Emerging Moral Worlds, Vol. 31. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2015.Google Scholar
Funk, M, Varghese, R, Zuniga, X. Racism. In Adams, M, Blumenfeld, WJ, Catalano, C, et al., Eds. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, 4th ed. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis, 2018.Google Scholar
Suyemoto, KL, Curley, M, Mukkamala, S. What do we mean by “Ethnicity” and “Race”? A consensual qualitative research investigation of colloquial understandings. Genealogy 2020;4(81):124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zanting, A, Meershoek, A, Frambach, JM, Krumeich, A. The “exotic other” in medical curricula: rethinking cultural diversity in course manuals. Medical Teacher 2020;42(7):791798.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, A. What’s wrong with essentialism? Distinktion 2010;11(1):4760.Google Scholar
Inhorn, M, Van Balen, F, Eds. Infertility around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender, and Reproductive Technologies. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Balen, F, Bos, HM. The social and cultural consequences of being childless in poor-resource areas. Facts, Views Vision ObGyn 2009;1(2):106.Google Scholar
Inhorn, MC. America’s Arab Refugees. Vulnerability and Health on the Margins. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018.Google Scholar
Hörbst, V. Male perspectives on infertility and assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in sub-Saharan contexts. Facts, Views Vision ObGyn 2010;8:2227.Google Scholar
Gerrits, T. Infertility and matrilineality. The exceptional case of the Macua. In: Inhorn, MC, Van Balen, F, Eds. Infertility around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender and Reproductive Technology. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Inhorn, MC, Patrizio, P. Infertility around the globe: new thinking on gender, reproductive technologies and global movements in the 21st century. Hum Reprod Update 2015:21(4):411426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donkor, ES, Sandall, J. The impact of perceived stigma and mediating social factors on infertility-related stress among women seeking infertility treatment in Southern Ghana. Soc Sci Med 2007;65(8):16831694.Google Scholar
Gerrits, T. Reproductive travel to Ghana: testimonies, transnational relationships, and stratified reproduction. Med Anthropol 2018;37(2):131144.Google Scholar
Kirubarajan, A, Patel, P, Leung, S, Prethipan, T, Sierra, S. Barriers to fertility care for racial/ethnic minority groups: a qualitative systematic review. Fertil Steril Rev 2021;2(2):150159.Google Scholar
Jackson-Bey, T, Morris, J, Jasper, E, et al. Systemic review of racial and ethnic disparities in reproductive endocrinology and infertility: where do we stand today. Fertil Steril 2021;116(1):169188.Google Scholar
Inhorn, MC, Fakih, MH. Arab Americans, African Americans, and infertility: barriers to reproduction and medical care. Fertil Steril 2006;85(4):844852.Google Scholar
Gerrits, T. Introduction. ARTs in resource-poor areas: practices, experiences, challenges and theoretical debates. In: Hampshire, K, Simpson, B, Eds. Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the Third Phase: Global Encounters and Emerging Moral Worlds. Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2015, 94104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finn, JL. Just Practice: A Social Justice Approach to Social Work, 3rd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Morgaine, K, Capous-Desyllas, M. Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice: Putting Theory into Practice. California, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Comas-Diaz, L, Jacobsen, FM. Ethnocultural transference and countertransference in the therapeutic dyad. Am J Orthopsychiatry 1991;61(3):392402.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×