Privacy Management as Unfinished Business: Shifting Boundaries in the Context of Infertility

Abstract

Privacy dilemmas are prevalent for women who experience a fertility problem. In this study, we use communication privacy management (CPM) theory to explore how privacy boundaries shift over time as women cope with infertility. Based on interviews with 23 women, we found that women described distinctive patterns of shifting privacy boundaries, including situations in which the experience of infertility served as a change agent, patterns in which women became more or less open over time, and patterns that indicated a continuous oscillation of boundaries. These ever-changing patterns of talk indicate that managing private information about infertility is unfinished business.