Traditional Culture, Power Distribution and Gender Stereotyping in Family: Explaining Gender Gap in the Reaction, Treatment Seeking Behavior of Infertility and its Impact on Quality of Life

Infertility is a reproductive system disease defined clinically by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. The problem of infertility in the world continues to grow, and become a severe public health issue in some countries with super-low fertility rates. As a reproductive system disease, it could be either men or women's physiological defects as the main reason for infertility in any heterosexual couple. However, we've seen some research indicating that men and women react differently regarding their infertility (Nagórska 2014). We initiated mix-method research to further explore the gender gaps in emotional reaction, treatment-seeking behavior, and other sociological reactions to infertility. On a quantitative side, we conducted a nationwide, non-probability sampling survey to ask 100 men and 100 women who or whose partner was treated for infertility in Taiwan. We also conducted 30 in-depth interviews with infertility women to dig more profound logic into the lives of infertility couples. Our research found a tremendous gap in perception and behavior in terms of infertility between men and women. In a nutshell, women tend to see infertility as their own responsibility and blame themselves more than men. Women also act more proactive in seeking treatment for their infertility, as their male couple act passively in the journey of the medical treatment. Based on our quantitative and qualitative analysis, we found that the influences of traditional cultural values, the power distribution related to the economic gaps, and gender stereotyping in childhood help shape the gender gap we found. However, those women who lived a life with more unbalancing effort in infertility treatment suffer and have a lower quality of life during their treatment, which is related to the outcome of the infertility treatment. Overall, gender equality is the basis of human rights and is fundamental to any progressive society. As the biological nature a woman’s reproductive clock ticks much quicker than a man’s, the focus of the equality within the infertility issue should be more profoundly concentrated and be put on the agenda of social and health equality(Nargund, 2014). From our research, we could advocate more intervention of fertility-related and more progressive family policy to twist the unbalancing efforts of men and women in infertility treatment and enhance women's independence in their way of having their child.