“Nobody Thinks Twice About Asking”: Women With a Fertility Problem and Requests for Information

For women with a fertility problem, responding to questions about childbearing, pregnancy, and the nature of infertility is a salient issue. In this study of talking about infertility, women described their experiences in handling such requests for information. Results suggest that requests come in a variety of forms, that women attribute multiple and potentially conflicting meanings to such requests, and that requests can elicit a variety of responses. From a communication standpoint, such inquiries suggest the varied ways that conversational partners can attempt to elicit disclosive information, thus enabling or constraining the emergent nature of the interaction.