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For millions of people, the path to building a family comes with a mountain of unexpected demands. This groundbreaking book reveals that infertility treatment is fundamentally “hidden work”—demanding, intimate, and high-stakes labor that is rarely discussed openly and yet is vital to the ultimate goal of taking home a baby. By blending academic insight with real human stories, this book offers an unprecedented look into the contemporary fertility landscape.
At the heart of the book are 124 in-depth interviews with aspiring parents who share their experiences before, during, and after treatment. Their rich testimonies reveal the endurance, creativity, and resilience required to survive the emotional roller coaster of infertility. Rosanna Hertz situates these stories within a meticulous structural analysis of the reproductive industry, shedding light on the inner workings of clinics, gamete banks, insurance policies, and investors to unveil how the business of reproductive medicine shapes the patient experience. Hertz also chronicles how couples have successfully pushed back against “Fertility World,” crafting alternative paths and workarounds that may serve as precedents for future generations of aspiring parents.