Changing In/Fertilities

Fertility is no longer a simple binary of planned versus unplanned pregnancy, but a landscape shaped by technologies like IVF that create new fears, hopes, and contradictions. This global project unites 24 research teams across 16 countries to document how people actually think about and manage fertility in a world where assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) are widely available. The problem is that policymakers and scientists still rely on outdated assumptions—for example, that more ART access simply means more babies—while real-world fertility behaviours are far more complex and surprising. Over three years, the team will collect detailed qualitative data on fertility “imaginaries,” fears, and decisions, including the tension between urging women to start families earlier while simultaneously offering technologies to delay childbearing. If successful, the research will produce a new sociological theory of post-ART fertility change, feeding directly into policy on family planning, reproductive health funding, and public health messaging. This is fundamental social science: it will not immediately change a medical procedure or a clinic’s waiting list, but it will reshape the assumptions that quietly guide everything from government fertility campaigns to insurance coverage for egg freezing.