CHICAGO -- Same-sex couples encounter more obstacles to treatment for infertility than opposite-sex couples, suggests a new study that will be presented at the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

"For example, same-sex couples often must undergo psychological evaluations before being treated for infertility -- a process that is not normally required for opposite-sex couples," said study author Ann V. Bell, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Delaware, who noted that the U.S. medical system is standardized to work with heterosexual couples.

Bell's study is based on interviews with 95 people -- 41 heterosexual women of low socioeconomic status, 30 heterosexual men, and 24 women in same-sex relationships. "These people are on the margins of our understandings of infertility, as it is generally viewed as a white, wealthy, heterosexual woman's issue," Bell said.

The new study builds on her 2014 book Misconception, which focused on the 41 women of low socioeconomic status, as well as 17 women of high socioeconomic status, to explore social class and infertility. Through her interviews with the 41-women for the book, Bell found that their experiences related to infertility were shaped by inaccurate stereotypes and that doctors often assumed infertility was not a problem for them.

Bell has extended her earlier research beyond social class to include the effects of infertility on men and same-sex couples. The "medicalization" of infertility -- studying and treating it as a medical condition -- is a process that has increasingly led to disparities and inequalities, she said.

"Most of the research out there is about women, even though just as many men are affected by infertility," Bell said. "It's still viewed as a woman's issue."

In addition, despite increasingly sophisticated medical treatments for infertility, such as in vitro fertilization, the high cost of many treatments and the "9-to-5 nature of medical practice" makes it hard for working-class people to afford the treatments or to access them while holding a job.

"Overall, researchers and the public focus a lot on the negative aspects of medicalization, but the medical advances that have been made are often very beneficial," Bell said. "The important thing is to recognize the kinds of inequalities that this medicalization is perpetuating and other new ones that it's creating."

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About the American Sociological Association

The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.

The paper, "Medicalization's Marginalization: The Role of Gender, Class, and Sexuality in the Medicalization of Infertility," will be presented on Sunday, Aug. 23, at 8:30 a.m. CDT in Chicago at the American Sociological Association's 110th Annual Meeting.

For assistance reaching the study's author(s) or for more information on other ASA presentations, members of the media can contact Daniel Fowler, ASA Media Relations Manager, at (202) 527-7885 or pubinfo@asanet.org. During the Annual Meeting (Aug. 22-25), ASA Public Information Office staff can be reached in the on-site press office, located in the Hilton Chicago's Boulevard Room B, at (312) 294-6616 or (914) 450-4557 (cell).

This press release was written by Ann Manser, University of Delaware. For more information about the study, members of the media can also contact Manser at (302) 831-1155 or amanser@udel.edu.

Papers presented at the ASA Annual Meeting are typically working papers that have not yet been published in peer reviewed journals.