Objective

To qualitatively explore and describe fertility information-seeking experiences of sexual minority women (SMW) couples using assisted reproduction.

Design

Qualitative thematic analysis of 30 semistructured, in-depth individual and dyadic interviews with SMW couples.

Setting

Video conferencing.

Patient(s)

Twenty self-identified lesbian, bisexual, and queer women comprising 10 same-sex cisfemale couples (10 gestational and 10 nongestational partners) using assisted reproduction technology in the United States.

Intervention(s)

Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measure(s)

We describe how SMW came to learn about ways to achieve pregnancy through information seeking, acquisition, appraisal, and use.

Result(s)

Analysis revealed three primary themes. First, uncertainty and information scarcity: SMW have basic knowledge about how to conceive but uncertainty persists due to information scarcity regarding how same-sex couples navigate assisted reproduction. Second, women attempt to collect fragmented information from disparate sources. The participants discussed a mixture of formal and informal, online, textual (books), and in-person seeking, finding, and synthesizing information that ranged from reliable to unreliable and from accurate to inaccurate. Finally, persistent heteronormative communication focused on the needs and conditions of male-female couples who experienced subfertility or infertility, rather than barriers related to social constraints and the absence of gametes that SMW sought to overcome.

Conclusion(s)

These findings support and extend existing evidence that has focused primarily on online fertility information seeking. Our findings suggest that shifts in fundamental assumptions about who seeks assisted reproductive support and why, together with improvements in fertility-related health communication, may result in more inclusive care for this population.

中文翻译：

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在性少数女性中寻求生育健康信息

客观的

定性探索和描述性少数女性 (SMW) 夫妇使用辅助生殖的生育信息寻求经验。

设计

对 SMW 夫妇进行的 30 次半结构化、深入的个人和二元访谈的定性主题分析。

环境

视频会议。

耐心）

在美国使用辅助生殖技术的 20 名自我认同的女同性恋、双性恋和酷儿女性，包括 10 对同性顺式女性伴侣（10 名妊娠伴侣和 10 名非妊娠伴侣）。

干预措施

不适用。

主要观察指标）

我们描述了 SMW 如何通过信息搜索、获取、评估和使用来了解实现怀孕的方法。

结果）

分析揭示了三个主要主题。首先，不确定性和信息稀缺性：SMW 拥有关于如何受孕的基本知识，但由于关于同性伴侣如何导航辅助生殖的信息稀缺，不确定性仍然存在。其次，女性试图从不同的来源收集零散的信息。参与者讨论了正式和非正式、在线、文本（书籍）以及亲自寻找、查找和综合从可靠到不可靠、从准确到不准确的信息的混合体。最后，持续的异性恋交流侧重于经历过生育能力低下或不孕症的男女夫妻的需求和条件，而不是 SMW 试图克服的与社会约束和缺乏配子相关的障碍。

结论

这些发现支持并扩展了主要关注在线生育信息搜索的现有证据。我们的研究结果表明，关于谁寻求辅助生殖支持以及为什么寻求辅助生殖支持的基本假设的转变，以及与生育相关的健康沟通的改进，可能会导致对该人群更具包容性的护理。