Chapters 8 & 9

1. Marriage & Divorce in the age of ICSI

1.1. Male infertility tips the scale of balance of power towards the woman

1.2. ICSI has complicated the dynamics of marriage

1.3. When ICSI doesn't work, couples have a big decision to make 1- remain together without children, 2- foster an orphan, 3- become involved with a co-wife or 4- divorce so the husband can remarry with a younger woman

2. Stigma

2.1. Both men & women feel a sense of a spoiled identity, women feel that they are missing motherhood, men feel they are weak

2.2. "Felt Stigma" involves the internalization of the societal evaluation of being infertile

2.3. "Enacted Stigma" is an intentional discrimination for being infertile

2.4. Couples try to stay private to avoid the stigmatization

3. Dilemmas of Disclosure

3.1. Couples are faced with to tell or not to tell and if they do tell who do they tell it to

3.2. Telling is an issue of trust

3.3. Some couples tell family members only after pregnancy is achieved

3.4. Other couples keep IVF/ICSI a secret forever for fear of their children being stigmatized

3.5. 74% choose disclosure over secrecy

4. The Stigma of Support

4.1. Egyptian women & men lack support when going through IVF/ICSI due to the secrecy

4.2. Support groups available but many refuse to go

5. Gender

5.1. Women undergo surgeries, procedures, medicines, etc.....

5.2. Men just get semen taken from them

5.3. Women achieve adult personhood through marriage & motherhood

5.4. Men infertility is very very bad for them psychologically & very emasculating

6. Femininities, Masculinities & Child Desire

6.1. Elite women felt satisfied in career, marriage & other things yet life isn't complete without being a mother

6.2. Being a father is an important achievement & a major source of their masculine identity

7. Conjugal Connectivity

7.1. Marriage is a highly valued & normatively upheld institution, so valued that divorce is forbidden

7.2. Marriage is for the purpose of procreation & family building & often arranged

7.3. Most couples hope to achieve parenthood within the 1st year

7.4. Egyptian marriages are fragile and unstable until the birth of children is achieved