Lois O. Gonzalez. 1988. THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF INFERTILITY: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF INFERTILE WOMEN Abstract: This phenomenological study was undertaken for the purpose of describing the meaning of infertility to infertile women. A phenomenological approach was utilized to elicit the essence of meaning attached to the experience. The purpose was to describe the responses of newly diagnosed infertile women and those one year or more post-diagnosis and to utilize an inductive process to formulate a descriptive structure depicting the meaning of infertility. Analysis was performed on data collected by means of intensive open-ended interviews of 25 informants. Informants were selected purposively to maximize variation within the sample. Adequacy of sampling was determined by exceeding the point of redundancy by seven informants. This point occurred when no new categories emerged. Data collection and analysis were conducted concomitantly. Data analysis included the identification and coding of meaning units, elimination of redundancy to identify essential characteristics, and the assessment of the essential characteristics to identify emergent themes across informants. The five themes which emerged from the data to form the descriptive structure for the meaning of infertility were: Failure to Fulfill a Prescribed Cultural Norm, Assault on Cultural Identity, Mourning, Transformation, and Restitution. It was concluded that these themes formed a transformational process influenced by the passage of time and by the particular diagnosis and prognosis of each woman's infertility problem. A structural definition summarizing the descriptive structure emerged: Infertility is experienced as a transformational process in which an infertile woman mourns her loss of reproductive function and parenting role and struggles to make restitution for the perceived impotence and stigma she associates with nonfulfillment of a prescribed cultural norm, the exclusion from revered societal rituals, and the deprivation of ties of descent. Variations among personal meanings among members of this sample were in terms of individual progress through the transformational process. The findings are consistent with the view of infertility as an experience of intense symbolic loss requiring a period of grieving. The study does, however, challenge traditional grief models and questions whether resolution does occur. Findings also indicated the need to view infertility as a disease and an illness and to focus interventions on the psychological, cultural, and spiritual suffering as well as the biological and physiological.