Think men don't get broody? Believe me, that's a myth

Hadley, Robin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4254-7648 (2017) Think men don't get broody? Believe me, that's a myth. NetDoctor.

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Abstract

Increased life expectancy and lower fertility rates has implications for individuals and nations. Most people want or expect to be parents and the achievement of biological parenthood in most cultures and societies offers the surest way to a positively valued social identity. Factors that influence fertility decisions and outcome include the timing of exiting education, entry in to the workforce, relationship formation and dissolution, partner selection, economics, health and age also affected people’s fertility decisions (Roberts et al., 2011, Simpson, 2008). Stereotypically, women are often defined by motherhood and men as ambivalent towards fatherhood. A diagnosis of potential or actual infertility can have significant life-long implications for mental and physical health, wellbeing, and close and wider relationships (Letherby, 2012). Post-infertility treatment men have often been reported as ‘disappointed but not devastated’ by not attaining fatherhood (Fisher and Hammarberg, 2012: p.142). This view still holds ground in much infertility literature despite that men have reported the treatment process had a profound effect on men’s beliefs about themselves and their place in society (Throsby and Gill, 2004). Moreover, many involuntarily and voluntarily childless people have hidden their experience and status, to avoid stigma and/or protect themselves or others from pain (Letherby, 2012). For example, the UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May’s childless status became an issue during her leadership campaign. Her husband’s childlessness was not mentioned.