INFERTILE WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE OF THE FORMATION OF THE FEMININE IDENTITY: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Fertility is a major event in most of women’s lives. They mostly consider the birth
of the child as a conforming factor of their identities. So, infertile woman’s definition of her identity is an
issue which is vague. This study has been done to identify infertile women’s experience of the feminine
identity and to investigate the formation process of their identities from their personal aspect.
Materials & Methods: In this study, information was gathered and analyzed by qualitative method and
two methods of phenomenology and grounded theory, through a semi-structured interview with twentyseven infertile women who were referred to the reproduction research center of Yazd.
Results: By codifying interviews and analyzing women’s descriptions, five contents were extracted which
contained : ‘No child a gap in feminine identity’, ‘the reparation of believing infertility’, ‘infertility,
extinct motherhood, women’, ‘gender and infertility’, and religion: a way to redress the infertility.
Conclusion: Results are indicative of identity in women interferes with complete understanding of their
feminine identity. Infertile women do not consider their identities from their personal aspect. The child is
the last link that woman transfer her dependence on mother and husband. So, giving counseling services
should be considered to enable women in redefining their feminine identity.