Melbourne School of Population and Global Health - Research Publications
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ItemWomen’s contraceptive decision-making: juggling the needs of the sexual body and the fertile body(The Haworth Press, Inc., 2005)The contradictions faced by women in the area of fertility management justify an in-depth qualitative study of contraceptive use. The experience of needing emergency contraception (EC) is an opportunity to study decision-making about fertility management. Thirty two in-depth interviews were conducted with users of EC recruited in Melbourne, Australia. Women were juggling the needs of the sexual body and the fertile body. The sexual body was expected to be available in women’s relationships, and the fertile body required protection from pregnancy in the present and preservation for the future. The needs of these two bodies were very often in conflict and women chose to resolve this conflict in subtly different ways; three strategies were identified. Some women chose to make sexual availability and security from pregnancy a priority; others felt forced to sacrifice sexual availability and security from pregnancy; and a final group chose to make the protection of the fertile body for the future a priority. This study provides a starting point for developing a context-based, woman-centered understanding of the experience of fertility management for women in developed countries.
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ItemGenetic connection and relationships in narratives of donor-assisted conception(Australian Centre for Emerging Technologies and Society, 2004)Donor-assisted conception diverts genetic connection from parent and child to donor and offspring. This article examines ways in which the contributions of genes and relationships to the meaning of family are explained in the narratives of donors, recipients, and offspring of donated gametes and embryos. More than 80 people were interviewed and subsequently consulted about their narrative accounts, which reflect the canonical narrative of families based on genetic connection. Some parents concur with this narrative and struggle to accommodate the lack of genetic connection within their understanding of the family. Others emphasise relationships while simultaneously affirming the significance of genes by ensuring the same donor for each child. Simple categorisation is impossible. As donors, parents, and offspring construct narrative interpretations of donor-assisted conception, they reveal the complex interaction in the meaning of genes and relationships, and of negotiations between those whose lives include donor-assisted conception and their social context.
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ItemThe feasibility of routinely collecting detailed information about menopausal history and menopause therapy use from women participating in Australian State and Territory BreastScreen programs(Australasian Epidemiological Association, 2007)Use of menopause therapies such as hormone therapies (HT) is associated with reduced mammographic sensitivity and screening effectiveness, and there is some suggestion that this differs according to HT formulation.At this time, the Victorian arm of the Australian breast cancer screening program (BreastScreen Victoria) collects some information about HT use at each screen, without detail about HT type or other menopause therapies. We examine the feasibility of extending the information collected to include more detailed information about the use of prescribed and non-prescribed menopause therapies, as well as the age at onset of menopause, reasoning that such data collection would generate a large database that could be used to further investigate the role of menopause therapy use and menopause in screening performance. We find that women show good recall of most information, except menopause therapy product name, which was recalled well only for formulations ceased up to two years prior to survey. We conclude that routine collection of this information is feasible within the biennial screening program.