REPRODUCTIVE TIMING, FERTILITY AND ASSISTED CONCEPTION AMONG CHILDLESS WOMEN - A QUALITATIVE STUDY ON POSTPONEMENT OF MOTHERHOOD AND REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES.

• Grant number: 25/16017-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2026
• End date: July 31, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Demography
• Principal Investigator: Sandra Mara Garcia
• Grantee: Sandra Mara Garcia
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: São Paulo
• Associated researchers: Jaciane Pimentel Milanezi Reinehr

Abstract

This research project seeks to understand how childless women, aged 25 to 45, living in the city of São Paulo and who have never resorted to reproductive technologies, relate to the possibility of motherhood and biomedical technologies associated with reproduction. The study investigates how these decisions and stances are experienced, interpreted, and represented, exploring motivations, dilemmas, and tensions, as well as knowledge and perceptions regarding women's reproductive capacity and the possibilities of biomedical intervention. Oocyte cryopreservation is treated as an emblematic case, as it constitutes an emerging strategy for managing reproductive time. The central objective is to analyze how these women construct meanings about reproductive time and its relationship to motherhood - whether desired, rejected, or postponed - in a context of profound social transformations.The research is set within a scenario of sustained fertility decline, changes in gender norms, reconfiguration of family dynamics, advances in biomedical technologies, and new demands in educational and professional trajectories. This context includes, among other factors, increasing demands for qualifications and economic autonomy. The project is grounded in the premise that the relationship with motherhood is not reducible to an individual and autonomous choice, but rather constitutes a socially situated process, influenced by cultural norms, structural constraints, and symbolic values - a field in which the biological body, personal desires, technological promises, and social expectations related to reproduction are intricately intertwined.The methodological approach will be qualitative, exploratory, and interpretative, integrating four analytical fronts: (1) conducting 36 to 48 in-depth interviews with women, distributed into two age groups (25-35 and 36-45 years); (2) analysis of normative and institutional documents on assisted reproduction; (3) examination of the digital communication of specialized clinics; and (4) analysis of discourses on fertility and reproductive technologies in social media. All fronts share an interpretative orientation, grounded in the categories of meaning, norm, and performance. The use of Atlas.ti software will enable the coding, organization, and integration of the data collected, fostering triangulation across different empirical sources and the construction of transversal analytical categories.By integrating subjective experiences, institutional discourses, and symbolic disputes surrounding reproductive time and biomedical technologies, the project aims to offer a situated and multifaceted understanding of contemporary reproductive dynamics. The proposal is positioned within interdisciplinary debates in the social sciences - in dialogue with anthropology, sociology, demography, and studies on public policies in reproductive health - providing theoretical and empirical contributions for a critical analysis of the inequalities, challenges, and transformations that shape the reproductive itineraries of women in contemporary urban contexts. (AU)