1. Chapter 8: Gender
1.1. The Man Who Replaced His Wife
1.1.1. Shahira and Moustafa are married. Moustafa suffers from male infertility, he has a low sperm count and poor motility.
1.1.2. This caused a lot of stress in his first marriage, and they eventually divorced.
1.1.3. Now Shahira must undergo IVF in order to have children (due to her husband's infertility). She has bad side effects and must undergo extra procedures in order to give birth to healthy babies.
1.2. Infertility: His and Hers
1.2.1. Infertility can be cause by either the man or woman.
1.2.2. It is ultimately a problem for the couple as a whole. No matter whose "fault" it is.
1.2.3. "Gender responses"
1.2.4. Infertility affects men and women differently due to the gender roles in society.
1.3. Femininities, Masculinities, and Child Desire
1.3.1. Egyptians, as a whole, desperately desire children. No one expresses that they might not want children.
1.3.2. It is ingrained in their culture that they must have children in order to be successful.
1.4. Conjugal Connectivity
1.4.1. Marriage is also very important in Egyptian society.
1.4.2. Status symbol
1.4.3. Couples are "conjugally connected" - this affects marital fertility
1.5. Marriage & Divorce in the Age of ICSI
1.5.1. Identifying male infertility has given women more "control"
1.5.2. Women might not stand by their infertile husbands
2. Chapter 9: Stigma
2.1. The Woman with the Secrets
2.1.1. Maisa suffers from blocked fallopian tubes
2.1.2. She would have to undergo an operation to repair the tubes
2.1.3. When she did become pregnant, she was worried it would not be successful, and kept it a secret
2.2. The "Top Secret" Stigma
2.2.1. Women feel isolated
2.2.2. "Missing" parenthood
2.2.3. They rarely publicly share their troubles with infertility
2.2.4. Shame
2.3. Dilemmas of Disclosure
2.3.1. Egyptian IVF patients might hear or spread misinformation about the process
2.3.2. Many patients do not tell anyone, even (especially) their families
2.3.3. Emotional
2.3.4. Disclosure is important for women and others who experience infertility
2.4. The Stigma of Support
2.4.1. Emotional isolation of the whole process
2.4.2. "Patient empowerment" through support groups
2.4.2.1. (I thought this was interesting. My mother had me via IVF and talked about how much a support group helped her.)