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Getting the Timing Right: Fertility Apps and the Temporalities of Trying to Conceive

Josie Hamper (Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom)

Technologies of Reproduction Across the Lifecourse

ISBN: 978-1-80071-734-3, eISBN: 978-1-80071-733-6

Publication date: 15 September 2022

Abstract

Fertility apps are digital tools for recording menstruation and bodily signs of fertility, with the aim of predicting future ovulation dates. For women trying to conceive, these predictions can be used to time heterosexual intercourse or insemination close to ovulation and thus increase chances of conception. This chapter explores women's use of fertility-tracking apps and the consequences of this for their experiences of trying to conceive in heterosexual relationships. I draw on findings from a thematic analysis of app content and interviews with women in the United Kingdom who had used apps to help them conceive, to show how these apps are often present in the in-between or transitional times and spaces of reproductive life. Apps are used to increase chances of pregnancy, but they are also used to navigate the many uncertainties of trying to conceive. Through a critical engagement with notions of control, anticipation and awareness, I explore how apps shape and are shaped by an increasingly demanding social and cultural context of reproduction.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

Thank you to all the women who generously gave their time to this study. I would also like to thank Tim Brown and Catherine Nash in the School of Geography at Queen Mary University of London for our many conversations about the research material and their continued support. The research was funded by the UK Economic & Social Research Council, grant number ES/J500124/1.

Citation

Hamper, J. (2022), "Getting the Timing Right: Fertility Apps and the Temporalities of Trying to Conceive", Boydell, V. and Dow, K. (Ed.) Technologies of Reproduction Across the Lifecourse (Emerald Studies in Reproduction, Culture and Society), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 149-162. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-733-620221013

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022 Josie Hamper. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited