'The dream of your life' and other patriarchal stereotypes in assisted reproduction

And at first, it was the ovule. When talking about maternity in relation to assisted reproduction, there are no babies, but gametes; There are no fathers or mothers, but sperm and ovules. There is talk of figures, techniques, tests and tests, but little about emotional load, pain in silence, anguish and despair and desire not fulfilled. The lives of couples, future mothers and fathers, are marked by waiting in clinics, medical analysis, transvaginal ultrasound, hormone injections, tests to know the quantity and quality of ovules, extraction of gametes, embryo transfers …

Betaespera becomes a wait to despair. A tangle again vocabulary, of specialized terminology that, however, contains in its semantics what will be, for most women and couples in treatment, the most important process of their lives, which leads to motherhood.

In recent years, the need to resort to assisted reproduction procedures (RA) has been increasing. The proof is that, at a time where there are less and fewer births, more than 40,000 babies have been conceived by assisted reproduction techniques (TRA), which represents 12% of births in Spain. And all surrounded by a social taboo that still persists, like 80% of women who have surveyed.

Precisely, one of the objectives of the Neotermed project, Neology and terminology in health sciences: variation and multidimensional analysis of biomedical discourse. Application to the scope of assisted reproduction in the Valencian Community for literacy in health and gender equality is to analyze the role of language throughout this process. Of the many aspects that have been discussed, such as the translation of specialized terms of the bring to other languages - we remember that Spain receives hundreds of “sanitary tourists” that come to receive this treatment and need a precise vocabulary -, we are going to deal here with two issues: the unequal representation of the genre and the appeal to emotions, as shown in informative texts produced by the clinics of Ra, one of the main clinics Information sources from those who receive tra.

Naturally, the main object of clinical observation is the woman. His body is conceived as a reproductive “machine”, so that the use of mechanical or architectural metaphors as a reproductive system, implantation window or walls of the vagina is frequent. The achievement of pregnancy depends on its proper functioning, but if this does not happen, a negative polarity terminology such as reproductive failure, low ovarian reserve, advanced maternal age is used. However, we have been curious to observe that, when pregnancy is not achieved due to male cause (40% of cases), then there is no talk of a problem or problem but of ‘male infertility factor’. In a survey carried out among patients, 67% of the women surveyed indicated that these expressions made them feel guilty or responsible for the success or failure of the treatment. In addition, this unequal representation of the genre, focused mainly on women, reinforces a cultural narrative in which motherhood is seen as the ultimate and most important destiny of a woman’s life, ignoring other possible forms of personal and professional fulfillment.

Another demand for many patients – 78% – is that they consider that the language used by clinics in their web pages is very technical and scientific – preimplantation genetic diagnosis, oculus vitrification, preservation of fertility, ovarian rejuvenation, clothing method, etc. – and does not take into account its emotions or feelings in a process that can be long and expensive in many ways.

And yet, resorting to emotions will be one of the key strategies to persuade women of the convenience of starting a ra treatment. “Fulfill your dream”, accompany you “on the wonderful trip of being a mom”, “in the adventure of your life”, “to get your greatest wish.” The clinics reproduce, as pointed out, the patriarchal stereotype according to which motherhood is the center of women’s life and urgently start with him with messages of tranquility – “everything will go well” – that do not anticipate the problems that may arise. Because everything that shines is not gold; And that is what has betrayed us another of our works. Faced with optimism a bit “ñoño” (you have to see the images of babies, pregnant women and families) offered by clinics, the forums of women in RA treatment show a very different mood. The analysis of the chats in which they exchange experiences, ask doubts and are encouraged collectively show a very different emotional vocabulary: “16 days ago I made an insemination, but since day 15 I am staining and I feel a lot of pain. I’m afraid to make me beta ”,“ I am also reading the comments, I want hormones, I feel bad, ovarian pains as if he wants to start rule and can’t; Let’s see in how many days … poor body is confused “,” we just have to fight, don’t lose hope. ”

Stain, pain, fear, bad, not being able, poor body, confusion, struggle, loss of hope … only three interventions are enough to highlight the physical and emotional complexity of the experience of seeking motherhood through ra. If the specialized language is prone to the use of metaphors with mastery of origin in material and concrete processes – ovules, contraceptive method -, the metaphors that women use to talk about their emotions refer to classical war metaphors – loo The worst case, frustration and hopelessness.

In our opinion, the greatest communicative challenge of RA clinics is to be able to name women as adult beings, people capable of assuming risk and pain as a conscious choice, of initiating a path of uncertainty animated only by their own desire and not by a pink color destination.

Isabel Santamaría Pérez is Professor of Spanish Language at the University of Alicante interested in medical-patient communication from a gender perspective.