{"id":106,"date":"2018-06-05T15:15:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T14:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=106"},"modified":"2018-06-21T15:12:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T14:12:54","slug":"fertility-fest-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=106","title":{"rendered":"Fertility Fest 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"During the second week of May the Bush Theatre in London hosted Fertility Fest<\/a> \u2013 an arts festival dedicated to fertility, infertility, modern families and the science of making babies. Organised by Jessica Hepburn and Gabby Vaultier, the event brought together artists, fertility experts, regulators, infertility patients and campaign groups over multiple days to talk about a huge range of issues relating to the modern \u2018condition\u2019 of human reproduction. I arrived at the Bush Theatre on Wednesday 9 May and attended again for a full day on Sunday 13 May. With my festival wristband and a schedule of events, I was ready to explore!<\/p>\n

Wednesday: There\u2019s \u2018more to life\u2019 than having children<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s evening event, hosted in partnership with the Fertility Network, revolved around the statement \u2018there\u2019s more to life than having children\u2019 and opened with talks by Jessica Hepburn, who introduced her new book, and Jody Day from the support network Gateway Women. These talks were followed by short PechaKucha style presentations (20 slides shown for 20 seconds each) by a range of guests who talked about their \u2018plan B\u2019 or personal pathways to accepting unwanted childlessness, from swimming the English Channel, to adopting a dog, establishing a childless-not-by-choice magazine or practicing yoga.<\/p>\n

Louise Ann Wilson talked about her project Warnscale<\/a>, which is a walk through the fells of Buttermere in Cumbria designed specifically for women who are biologically childless-by-circumstance. She emotively described the therapeutic value of immersing oneself in the natural environment and how the embodied practices of walking and mapping the landscape can encourage new opportunities to reflect on life as well as life events that remain elusive, such as the birth of a wished-for child. Wilson commented on the lack of social rituals for women who feel grief for the absence of the life event of becoming a mother and she is currently developing Warnscale to include a walk that explores men\u2019s experiences of infertility. Drawing also on observational research in fertility clinics, Wilson was able to trace parallels between and juxtapose the highly managed process of IVF in the laboratory and cycles of change in nature. Similarly to how reproductive processes and bodies are \u2018mapped\u2019 in minute detail through the process of fertility treatment, there is potential for re-imagining this process in\/onto\/through the natural landscape as a way to make sense of complex personal experiences.<\/p>\n

Sunday: Men\u2019s rooms, egg freezing and the awkwardness of language<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started Sunday with a session that focused on men\u2019s experiences of infertility. The title of the session, \u2018You, me and the pornstar\u2019<\/strong>, turned into a key point of discussion for the panel with several comments made on how its emphasis on \u2018the pornstar\u2019 offered a limited portrayal of men\u2019s experiences of IVF as being defined solely by the task of semen production. This discussion tied in well with Aaron Deemer\u2019s presentation of his art photography project \u2018Please make yourself uncomfortable\u2019<\/a> through which he documented \u2018sample rooms\u2019 or \u2018men\u2019s rooms\u2019 in fertility clinics\u00a0across the UK.<\/p>\n

I have never seen a sample room, or ever really thought about them in any detail, but seeing Deemer\u2019s photos and hearing him talk about them emphasised the complexity of these rooms as both designed-for-a-purpose and simultaneously highly emotionally charged, full of hope for success and fear of disappointment, and embroiled with awkwardness. The rooms were all very different \u2013 one of them had a chair that looked rather like one you would find at the dentist\u2019s, another was almost bare apart from a black and white poster of the Eiffel Tower, and a third had imposing metal bars across the window. Deemer\u2019s discussion of his photographs drew humorously on the strangeness of these settings but it was also clear that he had found a unique entry point for opening up conversations about much broader questions of masculinity, negotiating a biomedical phenomenon in a culture that assigns value to \u2018natural\u2019 procreation and how to articulate the \u2018male role\u2019 in fertility treatment.<\/p>\n

The session also included a reading of the play \u2018The Quiet House\u2019 with an introduction to the play\u2019s background story by its playwright Gareth Farr. The play offers an intimate insight into a couple\u2019s experience of fertility treatment and the effect this has on their relationship and life, with a particular voice given to the male experience of infertility. We only got to hear a snippet of the play, but it touched pertinently on the difficulty for men who feel side-lined in a treatment process that is almost entirely focused on the female body and the hurt of deciding when is the \u2018right\u2019 time to stop treatment. Throughout this session a central conversation point was the struggle to re-imagine a life-event that so many assume will happen in the most private and intimate sphere of life, and the associated difficulties of negotiating an unfamiliar, medicalised and highly controlled method of reproduction that takes place in a clinic, a sample room and a laboratory.<\/p>\n

\"\"Another highlight of the day was the \u2018Fertility Fight Club\u2019<\/strong>, where four speakers had ten minutes to talk \u2013 honestly and provocatively \u2013 about \u2018what makes you angry\u2019.<\/p>\n

Josh Appiganesi talked about how fathers often seem to be defined by their absence \u2013 men tend not to write books or start festivals about making babies and he made a point about how male philosophers have also been tellingly quiet about the experience of becoming a father. He commented on the need for men to talk more about \u2018what becoming a father is really <\/em>like\u2019. Perhaps unusually, a couple of years ago Appiganesi chose to do his talking on camera, which resulted in a documentary film \u2013 The New Man<\/a> \u2013 about the \u2018ordeal of becoming parents in our era of IVF, late reproduction, and the crisis of masculinity\u2019.<\/p>\n

Emily Jackson talked about social egg freezing and the legal time limits around egg storage in the UK. Currently, she explained, eggs can be stored for up to 10 years (with up to 55 years for women who have become infertile due to a medical condition). This means that women who freeze their eggs for \u2018social reasons\u2019 (such as not yet being with a suitable partner) have a relatively short period of time to use their eggs. For instance, women who freeze their eggs during their 20s (at recommended peak fertility) are likely to have to use or dispose of their eggs before they are needed. Jackson emphasised how the legal framework, which was designed before social egg freezing was widely practiced, decidedly works against<\/em> best clinical practice.<\/p>\n

Diane Chandler, author of the novel Moondance, was deliberatively provocative in her round of the fight club where she spoke to the question \u2018Secondary Infertility: What\u2019s the Problem?\u2019<\/strong>. Chandler argued that primary infertility (wanting but struggling to conceive a first child) and secondary infertility (wanting but struggling to conceive a second\/third\/fourth child) are not comparable and that trying to start a family is different to \u2018trying to complete one\u2019. It is not always appropriate, she argued, that people experiencing primary and secondary infertility share the same supportive spaces (such as online forums) and she presented examples of hurtful comments and competitive language used to make claims about whose grief is worst. In an honest provocation, Chandler made the case for not comparing experiences and emphasised secondary infertility as a different kind of infertility struggle.<\/p>\n

Stella Duffy argued \u2018Yes I Wanted Children. No I Don\u2019t Want Your Children\u2019 <\/strong>and talked frankly about her own infertility experience of trying to have a child followed by a cancer diagnosis. Duffy stressed the lack of words to describe parents of children who died and extended this inadequacy of words to the language of infertility. \u2018There is not a word for us\u2019, she exclaimed, people who wanted to be but did not become a parent are defined by words that emphasise their lack \u2013 childless, in<\/em>fertile, non<\/em>-parent \u2013 and the more positive alternative child-free<\/em> centres on the child as opposed to the person. The English language reflects, Duffy argued, the cultural persistence of pronatal privilege that tells us that it is better and right to have children. There is an urgent need for better words that encompass people who are not the parent they wanted to be but does not define them in terms of this. Echoing many of the other talks, the message was that dialogue follows from having the right, inclusive words \u2013 perhaps a task to be revisited at next year\u2019s Fertility Fest\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the second week of May the Bush Theatre in London hosted Fertility Fest \u2013 an arts festival dedicated to fertility, infertility, modern families and the science of making babies. Organised by Jessica Hepburn and Gabby Vaultier, the event brought together artists, fertility experts, regulators, infertility patients and campaign groups over multiple days to talk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[10,9,11],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","tag-infertility","tag-arts","tag-ivf"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9YI6o-1I","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":259,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=259","url_meta":{"origin":106,"position":0},"title":"Thinking about the difficult questions: Fertility Fest 2019","date":"31st May 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"We go to many exciting conferences and events throughout the year. Fertility Fest, however, is very special in that it bridges the gap between art and science, lay and professional. Infertility as a topic of discussion stirs intense emotions and Fertility Fest provides a very much needed outlet to express\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":525,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=525","url_meta":{"origin":106,"position":1},"title":"The IVF Experience opening workshop","date":"4th November 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"We were thrilled to launch our online event series 'The IVF Experience' this week. Our\u00a0first workshop coincided with Fertility Network UK's National Fertility Awareness Week, which is an whole week dedicated to having conversations about infertility and the realities of fertility treatment.\u00a0 Our first workshop was hosted by Sarah Norcross\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":273,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=273","url_meta":{"origin":106,"position":2},"title":"Fertility Show 2019: ‘Holding it together’","date":"12th November 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The vast exhibition hall of the London Fertility Show felt strangely familiar this year as I have come to recognise company stands, logos and people from previous years. A slight difference this year was the presence of a branch-out Fertility Fest, which is always of particular interest to me given\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":247,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=247","url_meta":{"origin":106,"position":3},"title":"Our Year in Review","date":"1st March 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"2018 has been a busy year for the Remaking the Human Body team. We are happy to share that we have, so far, conducted observations at 5 sites and have interviewed more than 50 professionals and patients about their views on time-lapse, IVF technology, and add-ons in the UK. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":536,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=536","url_meta":{"origin":106,"position":4},"title":"The Fertility and Modern Family shows 2021","date":"16th November 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The project team were present at this year's Modern Family Show and the Fertility Show Online Summit. The timing of these shows presented a perfect opportunity for us to share our new animations, which you can watch on our website here. Our booth at the Fertility Show Online Summit contained\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":197,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=197","url_meta":{"origin":106,"position":5},"title":"Why we go to the Fertility Show","date":"8th November 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"For the last couple of years, the research team has attended the annual Fertility Show in London. Now in its tenth year of existence, the Fertility Show has emerged as a key event for people who are interested in learning more about family making, infertility and the world of fertility\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Fertility-show.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}