Product Description
Since the FDA approved Viagra in March 1998, the "little blue pill" has been prescribed to over twenty million men.The Viagra Ad Venture: Masculinity, Media, and the Performance of Sexual Health chronicles the story of Viagra as reported in our nation's news outlets and promoted by Pfizer Pharmaceutical's marketing materials.In this critical discourse analysis, author Jay Baglia uses feminist and performance theory to uncover the meaning of Viagra and its relationship to performances of masculinity.At stake are the ways in which we construct normalcy, particularly as it relates to health, sexuality, gender, and the body.This book fits well in a variety of classes including gender studies, media studies, research methods, feminist theory, human sexuality, and health communication. ... Read more

Product Description
Childless: No Choice is based on original research into the emotional and social aspects of involuntary childlessness, its main component being a long-term study of the experiences of couples attending an infertility clinic. The study is further supported by a community survey and a survey of the attitudes of general practitioners. The book examines in detail the causes of childlessness and the availability of choices for childless people including artificial insemination, foster parenting and adoption. ... Read more

Product Description
Fertility Goddess SOVATA is one of Elysse's most inspirational books. She provides the reader with incredible data, facts, places, even her own story, in order to provoke action. The option and opportunity to cure infertility is available. SOVATA is the most famous resort in the world when comes to infertility being cured. Creatively, with this book Elysse takes us for a wonderful Transylvanian ride. She is proud of her heritage, and more than happy to share her memories with the entire world. Some of her memories are pure drama, others incredible fun. Elysse loves to positively inspire and to empower humanity. ... Read more

Product Description

Chronicling astonishing shifts in public attitudes toward reproduction, from the association of barrenness with sin in colonial times, to the creation of laws for compulsory sterilization in the early twentieth century, from the baby craze of the 1950s, to the rise in voluntary childlessness in the 1990s, to the increasing reliance on startling reproductive technologies today, Elaine Tyler May reveals the intersection between public life and the most private part of our lives—sexuality, procreation, and family.

Customer Reviews (6)

Suitable for teething
Elaine Tyler May's "Barren in the Promised Land: Childless Americans and the Pursuit of Happiness" fills an important gap in American social history. Through the use of myriad sources--largely secondary sources but also a collection of more than 500 letters sent to the author by voluntarily and involuntarily childless people--May concludes that the issue of reproduction and the social, economic, and political responses to it changed over time. The author decided to explore the topic after witnessing the public spectacle of the "Baby M" case, in which a surrogate mother hired by an infertile couple to bear their child chose to keep the baby instead of relinquishing custody as required by prior arrangement. Media reports on the case presented surrogate motherhood as a recent phenomenon, a claim May found to be erroneous upon further investigation. The press also presented infertility as a recently discovered problem, another claim the author easily refuted. It was how the media framed the Baby M case that interested the author the most, namely how public and private life in America interacts regarding the issue of childbearing. Reproduction as a private activity and its importance, or perceived importance, in the public sphere forms a central component of the book's structural framework.

Beginning in colonial times, reproduction and the public sphere were inseparable. The economic importance of children to the family, and the family as a pillar of the larger society, led to great social pressure on women to bear as many children as possible. The overtly religious atmosphere of the time labeled the childless sinful. May points out that many of the women accused of witchcraft either had no children or less than the customary number. With the creation of the American nation and the subsequent expansion to the shores of the Pacific, childbearing became an important tenet of the Manifest Destiny ideology. Male settlers broke the soil and built civilization; women populated it with children. Simultaneously, society began associating children with familial happiness. No less a figure than George Washington waxed optimistic about the importance of the "connubial life" in which children figured prominently. Another shift occurred when massive immigration into the country during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century fundamentally challenged the prior conceptions of childbirth. Descendents of the original Anglo-Saxon colonists began issuing dire warnings about "race suicide" as white childlessness increased. The emergence of eugenics was a direct result of the social strains caused by the immigration of "unfit" races. The fear of alien peoples also inspired a great concern about who should or should not have the right to bear children. Sterilization became the answer.

Starting in the post-World War II years and continuing for some time after, laws appeared on the books allowing physicians to sterilize some men and a large number of women deemed "feebleminded" or mentally unfit. The sterilization efforts eventually zeroed in most heavily on the poor and minority groups. Despite the flurry of public activity to stimulate the "right" sorts of childbearing, many women proved amazingly resistant to these pleas. A growing number passed up the opportunity to have children in favor of other pursuits. Public concern with all things children soared during the Baby Boom, when a huge increase in the number of methods and treatments to cure infertility took place in a country obsessed with equating children with happiness, success, and domestic security. After the tumult of the 1960s, and accelerating in the 1970s and beyond, voluntary childlessness not only increased but also gained a measure of acceptance even as the infertile sought even more intricate and expensive medical procedures in an effort to cure their problem.

May's study is at its best when examining the problems of childlessness from the colonial era to the 1960s. In these chapters, she strongly ties the issue of barrenness to historical cause and effect. She cites, for example, films, statements made by noted public figures such as J. Edgar Hoover, and numerous magazine articles published during the 1950s to make a strong argument for the centrality of reproduction in American society during that time. There is such overwhelming evidence in support of childbearing in the post war years that it is not difficult at all to imagine the intense pressure placed on those individuals and couples unfortunate enough to suffer from infertility. May allows us to see how damaging the absence of children could be to a couple. A man applying for work in the 1950s and early 1960s could miss out on numerous job opportunities if he and his wife did not have children because employers thought such people were irresponsible or untrustworthy. Workers without children continue to suffer in the office and factory today, as employers still tend to pay employees with children higher wages.

"Barren in the Promised Land" falters once it moves beyond the 1970s. After briefly discussing the reemergence of a new pronatalist movement in the 1980s, May resorts to a laundry list of the pros and cons of voluntary and involuntary childlessness culled from her letters. Unfortunately, the reader never gets a sense of how the comments in these letters tie into the larger framework of American society. Where is the examination of institutional response to the issue of childbearing after the 1970s? More specifically, how did the childlessness issue shape the larger social, economic, and political landscape in the late 1980s and after? In the introduction to her book, May explains that the Baby M case inspired her to write this study of childlessness. Strangely, the author mentions the case once or twice and then never refers to it again. A chapter devoted solely to this incident might have shed further light on the thorny issue of public versus private spheres as they relate to reproduction, thus giving the study additional weight. Moreover, it is an excellent example with which to specifically examine the convoluted situation that childlessness became in the 1980s and 1990s.

good ideas
Tyler May's book does a good job tracing the history of childlessness in the US from colonial times to the present.I wish she had dedicated more of the book to those who are childfree by choice.Much of the second part of the book dealt with those who experienced infertility problems, rather than voluntary childfree status.

Further, I wish she had examined more how society dictates that people have children, especially how this relates to masculine and feminine gender identities.

Overall, though, I found the book engaging and the personal stories of the infertile hair-raising.

An excellent, thoroughly-researched book!
Hooray for Elaine Tyler May!This is a very well researched cultural study of infertility.It will be particularly helpful to those who desire to be parents or to those who are parents after a long struggle with infertility.As an infertile woman in the United States, I was empowered by seeing so clearly how I fit into the history of the country.Perhaps a detailed academic study is not everyone's idea of fun reading, but I was enthralled.I could not put this book down and read it cover to cover, questioning constantly how my education could have had so many obvious, women-centered omissions.I count few books as life-changing but, for me, this is one of them.

Boring read.
I found it odd that this book was written by someone who actually has children.I am childfree and am very content being this way.This book deals with all different reasons for being childless/free.I thought this book was horrible.It dealt too much with theories and not real life situations.Only one chapter was dedicated to those who choose not to have children.Big disappointment.

An Excellent, Well Written Book
I would like to take exception with the posted review.I found the bookto be fascinating.It is clearly written, and I have learned alot from it. I hope potential readers will give it a chance. ... Read more

Product Description
Elizabeth Noble has written a startling analysis of the practical, legal, and ethical problems infertile couples face in becoming parents. She addresses these problems with an eye for technological advances and draws upon her own family's experience. 12,500 print (paper). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

It's NOT What You Do but HOW You Do It!!
Nothing in life is perfect and nothing we do ever matters, from conceing out children in the most natural and "normal" of ways to using any sort of infertility assistance-- what truly matters in the end is the WHYs and the HOWs of everything we do.

This is an ugly, embittered, and even mean-spirited book and I'd advice anyone very much in lvoe with a partner, male or female, who is infertile, to NOT read this book: it'll ake your already fearful feelings worse, and for no logical reason.

In a perfect world, we'd all be able to conceive at the drop of a hat. But the world is not perfect and neither is nature, yet does not make our lives any more beautiful and worthwhile.

If you love someone fiercely and they, for not fault of their own, cannot conceive but you still want to create a family together, then do everything in your power to form a family-- by sperm, egg, embryo donations or adoption.

In the end, it''ll make little difference-- for yourself, your partner, or your offspring.

Because what truly matters is love, genuine love.

Your children will feel the love between you, before and after they've been brought into the world and within your family. That lvoe will make them secure forever, regardless of how they arrived at your doorstep.

Terrible INSENSITIVE HORRIBLE book
This is a terrible book. It refers to children by DI as "illegitimate" and compares donor insemination to adultery. Its a terrible book and I don't recommend it to anyone.

A GREAT WHAT HAPPENED NEXT BOOK
How did Elizabeth Noble conceive with a sperm donor she knew but without having sex with him?How did her family feel about it?This is an thought provoking book which not only tells Noble's story but has an interestingchapter on donor offspring and their reactions at learning as adults thatthey have biological fathers who are not the fathers they grew up with. While this is a good book I would also recommend to anyone planning to bythis book to also buy Helping the Stork: The Choices and Challenges ofDonor Insemination by Vercollone.Vercollone's book helps you discuss DIwith your donor offspring so they don't become bitter...which was Noble'sexperience. ... Read more

Product Description
In the first book to examine the industry of reproductive technology from the perspective of the consumer, Gay Becker scrutinizes the staggering array of medical options available to women and men with fertility problems and assesses the toll-both financial and emotional-that the quest for a biological child often exacts from would-be parents. Becker interviewed hundreds of people over a period of years; their stories are presented here in their own words. Absorbing, informative, and in many cases moving, these stories address deep-seated notions about gender, self-worth, and the cultural ideal of biological parenthood. Becker moves beyond people's personal experiences to examine contemporary meanings of technology and the role of consumption in modern life. What emerges is a clear view of technology as culture, with technology the temple on which issues such as gender, nature, and the body are being rewritten and continuously altered.

The Elusive Embryo chronicles the history and development of reproductive technology, and shows how global forces in consumer culture have contributed to the industry's growth. Becker examines how increasing use of reproductive technology has changed ideas about "natural" pregnancy and birth. Discussing topics such as in vitro fertilization, how men and women "naturalize" the use of a donor, and what happens when new reproductive technologies don't work, Becker shows how the experience of infertility has become increasingly politicized as potential parents confront the powerful forces that shape this industry. The Elusive Embryo is accessible, well written, and well documented. It will be an invaluable resource for people using or considering new reproductive technologies as well as for social scientists and health professionals. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Broad but not deep
This book is great at laying out and discussing a variety of issues related to infertility, the complex technologies used to treat it, and the emotions that arise from these things. However, I was continually frustrated while reading this book because I felt that the author did not analyze very well the things she said. She would point out interesting comments made by couples seeking fertility treatment, but then give the same anaytical comments over and over again about the different couples' feelings. Also, I felt she was too biased and critical in her assessment of fertility treatment. It seemed like every couple (indeed, virtually everyone in the book was a married couple, very little representation from anyone else) felt the same way, ultimately -- disillusioned, doubtful about themselves, cynical about the process, and overall disappointed, even angry and bitter. This has not been my own personal experience, and I have a hard time believing that everyone in her large study sample was so dismal. It just wasn't a sophisticated, layered analysis. But it will probably be interesting to non-academics who would like to get a foundation for some of the negatives associated with infertility treatments, and with having problems with infertility. ... Read more

Product Description
Describes and analyses the corollaries of declining fertility in Southern India to discover how familial and gender relations are affected by the new situation of women giving birth only to 2-3 children. ... Read more

Product Description
Children on Demand examines the ethics of various forms of alternative parenthood, focusing specifically on adoption and assisted reproductive technologies, and the moral dilemmas they create for both individuals and the state. Tom Frame discusses the ethical challenges that arise when scientific possibilities get ahead of community consensus. The central question of this comprehensive, careful, and challenging book is: What is best for the child? ... Read more

Product Description
The rapid development of reproductive technologies has questioned many essential concepts belonging to our symbolic universe, such as human reproduction, motherhood and fatherhood; the transmission of the biological and cultural inheritance of mankind and the constitution of the psychic subject. These concepts, however, are supported by ideologies and value systems which hide that they are but theoretical constructions; consequently, they are taken as describing the "natural" function of reproduction. In this sense, the technological development takes the form of an increasing medicalization of the human body, of the life, sexuality and desire of people, especially of women. All this requires that we think critically about the conditions of possibility of these technologies and their psychological and ethical implications. In this book the author provides a detailed and rigorous analysis which locates the reproductive technologies in the historical context of the progressive technification of the management of human life, and their relation to the social and medical discourses on femininity, maternity and infertility.From a psychoanalytic point of view, culture and its discontents, violence, domination, are related intimately to the problematic character of sexuality, which includes the uncertainties of our desires. Social, medical, anthropological and literary discourses try to define "maternal desire" in order to control it: the definitions which capture it in their nets are means to dominate desire as an object and to "construct" the desiring subject. But psychoanalysis (through the associations of the subjects in question) shows that we face here an impossible question: one thing is the enunciated "demand", what is said about one's own desire ("I want a child"), and a very different one is the unconscious desire which disturbs the conscious discourse and shows that there can be psychological obstacles that interfere with the accomplishment of conscious wishes, conflicts and contradictions emerging through the women's words.In this book, the circulation of representations between the individual imaginary and collective myths is the basis of a multidisciplinary complex and original point of view, which confronts a variety of discourses arising from psychoanalysis, medicine, journalism, ethnology, mythology and literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

'Free association press' probably says it all
This is one of a handful of books that I ordered by topic.Most of the others are good, but it's also important to remember that one can wind up with absolutely dreadful things when one orders blind.The current oeuvre is a jargon-steeped, cant-filled, hand-waving, self-indulgent disgorgement.The writer's style is impenetrable, and there's not an argument in hailing distance.Those with actual interest in the topic are better off reading almost any of the other books that Amazon lists. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of correspondences between two women--brought together by their struggles to conceive a child in the face of infertility--documents their years of infertility traumas and adoption disappointments and their growing friendship. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

very inspiring
I read this book about 12 years ago when I was going through infertility.I was very distraught and reading what these two women were going through help me to not feel so alone.I've since adopted a beautiful daughter and had a surprise biological daughter 7 years later.I went through almost everything these two women went through emotionally and physically.I have always remembered this book fondly.

A good book for a birthmother to read too!
I am a birthmother. This collection of letters has opened my eyes to the pain of infertility. This book has made it possible for me to understand that the pain infertile women have is exactly opposite from the pain I have, which coincidently, makes us very similar. I only wish I could writeto the two women who wrote it.

With support, you can get through even the worst...
I am so sorry to see this excellent book is out of print. I loaned my copy to a woman I'm counseling and she said it was the best book she's ever read on surviving infertility. Well worth searching out, and I'll contact theauthors to urge their publisher to bring it back! Carol Frost Vercollone,infertility counselor & author of Helping the Stork. ... Read more

Product Description
Hardbound. The extraordinary progress in reproductive medicine which has taken place over the last two decades, and the new developments envisaged for the first decade of the 21st century, are discussed in this comprehensive new volume due to be published in the Excerpta Medica International Congress Series.Particularly innovative basic and clinical research in conception, contraception, assisted reproduction, the menopause and the andropause is covered. Key features include Andrew Schally's review of LHRH analogues and antagonists, and an investigation of a new alternative to hormone replacement therapy. This book is perfect for gynecologists, andrologists, urologists and other professionals with an interest in the state of the art in reproductive medicine. ... Read more

Product Description
Few recent technologies have attracted as much attention as In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), a technique in which ova are fertilized in a glass dish and transferred to the prospective mother. Despite a large body of literature and much recent publicity on the ethics of new re-productive technologies, however, we are far from understanding what actually goes on in the nation's 138 in vitro fertilization centers, and even farther from possessing a clear public policy regarding this controversial technology.In this book the author examines two different, and often opposing worlds of in vitro fertilization: the public's political, legal and ethical concerns surrounding the technique, and the personal, pragmatic world of the individual patients who come to the centers seeding a cure for infertility. The crux of this analysis revolves around the intersection, and sometimes the antagonism, between these two worlds. While use of the centers is growing extremely fast, there is an absence of any federal-level policy to monitor this technique. To fill this vacuum, individual practioners of IVF and other new reproductive technologies.The author investigates the current effects of these guidelines in interviews with physicians, scientists, policy makers, and patients at IVF centers, and argues that in this case, the public policy we implement should take its direction from the self-regulation that is already occurring on a local level and which is so well-developed that it has in effect taken the place of a formal federal policy. For all those interested in, or contemplating the rapidly growing field of in vitro fertilization, this is an objective analysis which answers many perplexing questions. ... Read more

Product Description
Beyond Second Opinions is both an expos of the risks, errors, and distortions surrounding fertility medicine and an authoritative guide for people seeking treatment. Accessible, comprehensive, and extremely well-informed, this book takes the reader beyond hype to the hard data on diagnoses and treatments. Judith Steinberg Turiel, a consumer health activist and herself a veteran of fertility treatments, uses the most up-to-date medical literature to shed new light on difficult decisions patients face today and on reproductive questions society must begin to address now. Those who are seeking a more balanced perspective to help them make better, more informed decisions will find a wealth of information about current reproductive interventionsfrom simple fertility pills to dazzling experimental optionsas well as a discussion of the non-medical forces (economic and political) that shape an individual's treatment choices and reproductive outcomes. Despite quantities of information showered upon patients, they remain woefully misinformed; some fertility treatments may actually reduce chances for a successful pregnancy and threaten a patient's health. Turiel looks beyond surface claims to the real information, often uncovering counterintuitive findings and sometimes scandalous revelations. She exposes a realm of unregulated expansion, unscientific experimentation, and recent scandal over stolen embryos. Weaving together first-hand accounts, compelling stories, a range of scientific information, and lively anecdotes, Turiel addresses the persistent gulfs that separate medical professionals and health care consumers. In the process she arms laypeople with what they might not learn about infertility practices from doctors, patient education brochures, and the newspaper. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Read this book before embarking on infertility treatment
This book is one of the only sources--in any media--that presents unbiased information about fertility treatments.Next time you look at a website that purports to offer "education" about infertility, scan the ads that support the website.You'll find the major pharmeceutical companies that Turiel covers in her book are funding your "education."

Turiel's arguments are lucid, and her research is impeccable.Many will not like this book because it presents the tough truth:fertility treatment risks the health of women, and fails for 60% of the people who try it.

This is a very readable book--entirely approachable for lay persons.Turiel herself is not a doctor, and hence has no vested interest in promoting fertility treatment, or dissuading others from pursueing it, save her personal experience.

An important clarification--another review stated that Turiel's mother had fertility treatments.This is incorrect.Turiel's mother took DES, a drug that was prescribed to healthy women to ensure against miscarriage and make pregnancies "more normal."It resulted in birth defects and cancer in many DES children.Turiel uses the example to make a powerful parallel with the rampant prescription of fertility drugs.

Read This Book First!
I would recommend reading this book first before going to a fertility clinic.I am undergoing fertility treatment and have therefore looked at several books on fertility and none of them tell you the truth like this book does.At the clinics, very little was explained to me and the doctors seemed eager to prescribe drugs without explaining the risks of multiple pregnancies and cancer.Basically, this book explains that fertility treatments are experimental and that the long term effects may be harmful, i.e. the risks may outweigh the benefits.So a couple considering fertility treatment should be well-informed and the best place to begin is this excellent, well-written and informative book.

I think I'll donate it to the wood stove this winter!
Well - this is the first book about Infertility that I have ever purchased. And if more Infertility books are like this- I don't want 'em. It has made it hard for me to want to put any more money into buying a new infertility book. I just felt like the author was very negative toward the infertility specialist. Its a total "bash my doctor book- read all medical journals ever written because your just a guinea pig". Not the type of positive material I want in my home. If I could return it I would! I think I'll donate it to the wood stove this winter. It was too long it didn't keep my interest. I am undergoing infertility treatment and it just didn't seem very helpful!!! I mean lady quit whining about your mothers infertility treatment~ the doctors did the best they knew at the time and you are the miracle from there hard work!

Save your money
I found this book to be the biggest waste of my time and money that any medicial book could be.I wouldn't have finished it, but I have to review it for a class.I chose this book because it looked like a fresh look atinfertility.Now I realize she only has two points to make with this book. One, some treatments that infertile patients undergo have long term sideeffects.Two, there isn't much research to show the rate of"spontaneous" conceptions versus IVF and similar treatments. Would you like to be the control of that study?She hammers that peoplecould get pregnant on their own if they tried longer.Nice thought, but ifyou to the put where you are considering IVF or GIFT, another 5 years is along time.In addition to her research, I also found the writing to bepoor.She used overly techinical language and writing when there wasrarely a need.

A good book with a fresh look on treatments and risks
This book certainly has a lot of information on various treatments (as you would likely find in many other books), but what makes this book unique is its in-depth look into the controversy which surrounds these treatments. The risks are covered in depth, where in most books this is not discussed. The benefits of certain treatments over others is discussed.The author isvery knowledgable and gives an insiders view of the medical factssurrounding fertility treatments.My biggest surprise was how little isreally understood and/or confirmed by the medical establishment.Theresearch is often lacking and the results are anything but conclusive.Irealized by reading this book why our RE (Dr) choose not to give my wifefertility drugs during her IUI treatments.My wife would have preferredanything possible that would potentially improves our changes.It is turethat most Dr's seem to throw "everything they got" at patients,even though doing so can be potentially dangerous.This is really anenderlying theme in this book, in my opinion.Often, the success rates donot correlate and are subject to question themselves.The author, who haspersonal experience as a DES daughter, relates the medical experiments ofthe past to many of the current treatments, which are more experimental innature than we know.In our desparate quest to have children, most doctorsare caving in to the pressure and giving patients drugs and treatmentswhich are not well understood.This was very interesting to read andshould help me and my wife make better choices.Overall, I found this bookto be a fresh look on fertility treatments ... not just the facts, but thewhole story, which is rarely discussed outside the medical community. ... Read more

Product Description
Does exposure to environmental toxicants inhibit our ability to have healthy children who develop normally? Biologic markers - indicators that can tell us when environmental factors have caused a change at the cellular or biochemical level that might affect reproductive ability - are a promising tool for research aimed at answering that important question. "Biologic Markers in Reproductive Toxicology" examines the potential of these markers in environmental health studies; clarifies definitions, underlying concepts, and possible applications; and shows the benefits to be gained from their use in reproductive and neurodevelopmental research. ... Read more