Chapters 8 & 9

1. Marriage and fertility

1.1. Infertile couples tend to have better marriages in terms of companionship and love

1.1.1. Although there are cases where couples that are infertile may question divorce and become unhappy.

1.1.2. In Egypt, the purpose of marriage is to have a family and then eventually fall in love with their spouse.

1.2. Male infertility

1.2.1. Men often feel emasculated by their infertility and usually allow their wives to consume the pressure of infertility and its hard ships.

1.2.2. ICSI advancement has given more hope to infertile men and their wives

1.2.2.1. Women that are now too old to be viable candidates often worry if their husband will divorce them because now the men are more viable candidates

1.3. Female infertility

1.3.1. Many women is Egyptian society often feels shame and is the center of gossip. This brings them a lot of shame and forces to keep their attempts a secret.

2. Dual Stigmatization

2.1. Couples must deal with two forms of stigma in Egyptian culture

2.1.1. The inability to naturally conceive causes judgement of a void marriage and life

2.1.2. If a couple seeks fertility treatment that is also frowned upon because it isn't natural or God willing

3. Support

3.1. lack of support, especially for women, leads to isolation because it is common in their culture to be the core of gossip if someone exposes her secret of seeking fertility treatments.

3.2. Most couples do not seek out emotional support during the stressful trials because they are afraid of judgement, so they usually keep their pain or frustration within themselves or to their partner.

3.3. Doctors understand that it would be in the patients bests interest to seek companionship during this time, but couples are against it.

3.4. Family can either be very supportive or not, which is why couples usually don't seek support because it's too risky