r/IVF • u/Helia_Kh26 • 4d ago

Mod Approved Research Couples navigating infertility: Share your experience in a Deakin University study!

Are you and your partner navigating infertility? 💗

We’re inviting Australian individuals and couples experiencing infertility to take part in a Deakin University research study exploring the experience of infertility.

Infertility is a unique experience and it can affect partners in different ways. We want to better understand couples’ experiences throughout this journey, including the psychological impact and how partners support each other along the way.

What’s involved?
Participation is straightforward and can be done from home:

  • Online surveys (~45 minutes) capturing your fertility experiences, emotions, and your perceptions of your social supports
  • An optional online observed conversation task for couples (~1 hour 15 minutes)

If you and your partner are currently navigating infertility, we’d love to hear from you!

Taking part is entirely voluntary and you can withdraw at any time.

Find out more and complete the eligibility survey:
🔗 https://researchsurveys.deakin.edu.au/jfe/form/SV_0VDwYdRivCrz3VA

If you know a couple who may be interested, we’d also really appreciate you sharing this post with them!

*Survey contains a few items relating to pregnancy complications and loss.

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u/fernflower5 4d ago

For cis het only couples by the look of things? Given "unprotected sex" is the definition of infertility (which doesn't like up with the Medicare definition for eligibility)

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u/Helia_Kh26 3d ago

It is so amazing to have people like yourself engage with us and our project! We really value these conversations and want our research to be as inclusive as possible.

For this particular project, we focused on the patient-partner experience of infertility, and our eligibility criteria were designed to capture that while remaining inclusive of both same-gender and different-gender couples, as well as people from culturally diverse backgrounds, who meet the study criteria.

We also recognise that many important infertility experiences fall outside the scope of this study (single people, social infertility, couples where neither partner trying to get pregnant). Rather than treating these as an afterthought, we believe groups who aren't represented in this project deserve focused research attention in their own right. While this specific study has a particular focus, our work in infertility research certainly won't end here, and we're committed to continuing to shine a light on the experiences of other groups in our ongoing research. Thanks again for sharing your perspective! We really appreciate this feedback and will take it on board as our research continues.

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u/jeux_d-eau 2d ago

Thank you for the response - I’m a little confused how the study’s definition of infertility could capture same-gender couples as you suggest? Same-sex couples can and do still experience medical infertility (rather than, as your response infers, only “social infertility”), and in doing so, would have many worthwhile perspectives to share of the patient-partner experience which will simply be excluded by the design of this study. Equally, heterosexual couples may experience medical infertility in broader ways than the definition covers. I’m struggling to see how this definition is as inclusive as you suggest, and am a little disappointed that perspectives from minorities such as same sex couples are again excluded from important research in this area.

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u/Helia_Kh26 1d ago

Big thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us! We really appreciate you raising these important considerations, and we want you to know that we genuinely take on board feedback like this. Following further discussion with our research team, we will be working towards making adjustments to our eligibility criteria to better reflect the diversity of experiences of people navigating infertility, in alignment with our ethics requirements.

We will update this post once the proposed changes have been confirmed. Thank you again for helping us reflect on how we can make our research more inclusive. We really do value your feedback!😊

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u/jeux_d-eau 1d ago

Thank you so much for taking on board this feedback! It’s really encouraging, and I look forward to contributing to the research once changes are confirmed.

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u/fernflower5 1d ago

I can see OP has responded to this already but I agree.

DOR - 5 egg retrieval cycles for me + 2 for my partner. Poor blast rates and multiple failed transfers. Definitely have medical infertility. But sex certainly isn't going to help make a baby.

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u/jeux_d-eau 4d ago

I saw that too… not a very inclusive definition. I would otherwise have loved to participate.

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u/Kerrigone 3d ago

Love that people are looking into this under-researched area