‘I feel like I was born for something that my body can’t do’: a qualitative study on women’s bodies within medicalized infertility in Italy

Objective: In the context of infertility, women’s bodies have a central physical, psychological, and social role. Medically assisted reproduction (MAR) treatment includes highly intrusive procedures targeting women’s bodies. This study aimed to develop a preliminary understanding of women’s core meanings around their bodies within their experiences of medicalized infertility in Italy. Design: 104 Italian women dealing with infertility and MAR treatments answered open-ended questions, which were part of a broader online survey. A reflexive thematic analysis was performed. Results: Three themes were identified: (a) the paradox of the body: ‘I feel like I was born for something that my body can’t do’; (b) ‘Something only mothers can do’: meanings attributed to the physical body; (c) Internalized ‘clinical gaze’: medicalized body representations. Conclusions: This work provides insights into the meanings assigned to their bodies by Italian women dealing with MAR. This study outlined women’s ambivalence towards their bodies, describing them as ‘fragmented’ into parts and as ‘deposits’ of their reproductive hopes. Results suggest that Italian pronatalist culture may have potential fallouts for women’s gendered sense of self and the integration between their biological and psychosocial body experiences. Study limitations, future research directions, and clinical implications are presented.