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Abstract
The aim of this study was to understand men's and women's experience of fertility problems in the early stage of investigation. Three couples were intetviewed together and each partner separately and their accounts of infertility analysed using a discourse analytic approach. The method involved examining the narrative text for themes relevant to the question, identifying the accounts used by participants to explain their experiences and hypothesizing about the functions of these accounting practices. These accounts were then discussed in relation to wider medical and social discourses about infertility. Participants reported that non-conception was not always a problem to them, but that this varied depending on the context (time, biology, life plans, relationships, self and social) within which it was being discussed. The subjectivity of people with fertility problems appeared to be less consistent and more contextually contradictory than the literature has previously identified. Implications for the couple's relationship and for counselling services are discussed.
