The importance of the ‘family clock’: women’s lived experience of fertility decision-making 6 years after attending the Fertility Assessment and Counselling Clinic

Abstract

This study explored women’s lived experience of making fertility decisions six years after attending the Fertility Assessment and Counselling (FAC) clinic in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is a personalised fertility awareness intervention. We conducted a qualitative interview study with 24 women who attended the FAC clinic 6 years earlier. Interviews were semi-structured and broadly examined the women’s perceptions and experience of the intervention during follow-up. Data was analysed using a phenomenological framework and themes were identified related to women’s experience of making fertility decisions after attending the FAC clinic. The overarching theme regarding the women’s lived experience of making fertility decisions after attending the FAC clinic was: Fertility decisions were guided by the ‘family clock’. There were four themes: (i) Deciding to ‘get started’ by attending the FAC clinic; (ii) Sense of making informed and empowered decisions; (iii) Influence of partner status on fertility decisions; and (iv) Decisions dictated by circumstance over preference and knowledge. At follow-up, the majority (21 women, 88%) had become parents. More than half of the women said that they had not achieved their desired family size. Consideration of women’s ‘family clock’ is necessary in personalised fertility awareness interventions to enable women to achieve their family goals.

Keywords:

• Fertility
• education
• fertility awareness
• qualitative

Acknowledgments

We thank the women who agreed to be interviewed and shared their experience.

Disclosure statement

JB reports that the risk evaluation form used at the Fertility Assessment and Counselling (FAC) clinic was inspired by the Fertility Status Awareness Tool FertiSTAT that was developed at Cardiff University for self-assessment of reproductive risk (Bunting and Boivin, 2010). JB also reports personal fees from Merck KGaA, Merck AB, Theramex, Ferring Pharmaceuticals A/S and a research grant from Merck Serono Ltd. outside the submitted work. The other authors report no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by ReproUnion, co-financed by the European Union, Interreg V OKS under ESHRE Travel/Training Grant for Emily Koert in 2017–2018.