Changing In/Fertilities (360G-Wellcome-209829_Z_17_Z)

In contrast to the promotion of planned parenthood which dominated the early and mid 20th century, it is the spectre of unplanned infertility that has beome more prominent in the early 21st century.Changing In/Fertilities is designed to facilitate the urgent task of more explicitly characterising post-ART fertility transitions through a global collaborative project uniting 24 research projects in 16 different countries. Over a three year period this large team will explore changing perceptions of fertility, fertility imaginaries, fertility fears and fertility behaviours in the post-ART context. We will document in ‘thick’ qualitative detail the often surprising and unexpected ways in which fertility is being re-imagined and redefined, and also how new fertility trajectories intersect – for example in the effort simultaneously to encourage women to begin their reproductive lives earlier, whilst offering increasing options to extend fertility. We will identify key factors and drivers linking the expansion of ARTs to fertility change, and these will feed into policy as well as basic scinece. Our detailed studies of situted fertility transitions will support a sustained comparative exercise that will in turn yield a more general sociological theory of post-ART fertility change.