Does Self-Identifying as Having a Health Problem Precede Medical Contact? The Case of Infertility

Area of Science:

• Sociology of health
• Medical sociology
• Reproductive health

Background:

• Medical help-seeking studies often assume identity precedes medical contact.
• The temporal order of self-identification and help-seeking behavior requires systematic examination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the temporal relationship between self-identifying a fertility problem and seeking medical care among women with infertility.
• To explore how infertility impacts identity and medical behavior alignment over time.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal data from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (2004-2010) on 412 women with infertility.
• Cross-tabulation analysis and latent class analysis were employed to examine temporal ordering and identify behavioral patterns.

Main Results:

• More women identified as having a fertility problem before seeking medical contact (24%) than vice versa (5.5%).
• A tendency towards aligning self-identification and medical behavior over time was observed.
• Latent class analysis identified six distinct patterns of involvement, including 'early consulters' and 'medical dropouts'.

Conclusions:

• The relationship between self-identification of infertility and medical help-seeking is complex and dynamic.
• Fertility intent and primary infertility status significantly influenced patterns of self-identification and medical engagement.