MALE INFERTILITY--MEN TALKING CL (Hardcover)

by Mary-Clai Mason (Author) "Men are shadowy figures when it comes to matters of fertility..." (more)
Key Phrases: sperm problems, national fertility association, fertilising ability, Office of Technology Assessment, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
'One of the few books to truly address the emotional and psychological implications of male sub/infertility'

One of the few books to truly address the emotional and psychological implications of male sub/infertility

`Everyone, specialist to patient will benefit from reading this highly readable and enlightening masterpiece. Don't just sit there - READ IT.'

`Everyone, specialist to patient will benefit from reading this highly readable and enlightening masterpiece. Dont just sit there - READ IT. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Explores the past and present medical management of male infertility and allows men to tell their own stories of what it feels like to be infertile.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (November 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415072891
• ISBN-13: 978-0415072892
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,355,906 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars first steps, May 11, 2006

By	A. G. Plumb "Greg Plumb" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Male Infertility--Men Talking (Paperback)

This is such a tragic, moving story - hearing the voices of men discussing the almost undiscussable. But for me the most amazing aspect is their ability to cope - their ability to 'go with the flow' and get on with things. Of course, this book is a very tiny sample (and even the author recognises that the sample is biassed - too many sterile rather than infertile respondents compared to population statistics - perhaps that tells us something about sterile men) and necessarily the author could not interview any man with fertility problems who had made the ultimate withdrawal from an unsatisfactory world.

I know a man who is sterile and I can see synergies between him and the responses reported here, even though his cicumstance is different from all of them. Unlike the respondents here he knew before he was in a relationship - so he did not have a partner to provide support - neither did he have a partner with whom he could bury his own responses by providing her support. It affected him in different ways, but then his life did change. But, for all of these afflicted men, the continual ache in the background does remain even when parenting softens the blow to a degree.

None of the men with infertility problems in this book makes the demand on their partner that they should just accept what fate has dealt them. These men - despite qualms and uncertainties - go along with their partners and fufill their own desires as much as is possible, by following the routes of adoption and assisted fertility processes such as donor insemination (DI).

Perhaps there is another book to be written - one with a broader perspective. How do men cope, for whatever reason, with a failure to become a parent? Is it important to them? Does it have an impact on their life's 'achievement' (think about Beethoven for example)? Are men different in this to women?

Be prepared to confront uncomfortable ideas when you read this book - other people's sadness. One of the men saw that he had an 'invisible disability'. For me this might have been the most telling comment of all - perhaps everyone has invisible disabilities of one sort or another and we should respond to people with understanding and acceptance of that.

But then there was the anguish too. As one of the men said - It's terrible to have a problem, and your wife is the one who gets all the treatment and suffering for it.