03/11/2026
Reproductive Identity.
What is the process driven statement or word for parenting after infertility? What about the process driven word for for not-parenting after infertility?
We talk of adolescence, or matrescence, but what is the process for the person who has navigated complex fertility treatments and has either come to parenthood, or equally likely has not?
What is the "scence" for these experiences?
These are thoughts I have been left with in the Infertility Awareness Week after reading Dr. Aurelie Athan Reproductive Identity and listening to her on Ruby Warrington's Women Without Children podcast as well as her YouTube presentation for The Motherhood Centre.
It also come off the back of conversations recently with many women who a navigating finding their new identity either with a child, or without one, or without one living after complex fertility treatment experiences, or those still in the space and being unsure.
We dont talk enough about these experiences, how infertility shapes us, not only in the time we are IN treatment but post, how it shapes our view of ourselves as parents, not-parents (either no child or no living child) after infertility treatment. But the experiences of infertility do shape us, both women & men, in ways we may not be able to articulate, but which etch on us physically, psychologically and socially.
The acknowledgement by Aurelie, that reproduction experiences are existential is so important, is it a crisis? Maybe. That will depend on you and your own expeirence, but it is life changing.
What do you think?
What word or phrase would you use about your experience?
Have you grappled with these transitions? How do you help people navigating these spaces?
Have you heard of the concept of Reproductive Identity?
I have tagged some of my lovely colleagues working in this space, and would to hear what you all think! 🙏❤️
