Социалното конструиране на безплодието в българското общество
Social Construction of Infertility in Bulgarian Society

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents discourses of childlessness as a social and personal issue in Bulgarian society. The authors begin with the diversity of definitions and terms, underscoring the transition from the socially stigmatizing concept „sterility“ to the more neutral and biologically undetermined concepts of „infertility“ and „childlessness“. On the basis of a thematic analysis of articles in magazines and newspaper, as well of websites of professional and patient organizations, and legislative documents, the major themes of the public discourse of infertility are extracted. Infertility is constructed as a problem of the nation, contributing to the demographic crisis, and as a problem needing legislative regulation. There is an emphasis on localizing the reasons and responsibility for infertility of men and women, a well as on its medical and psychological aspects. In the second part of the paper the authors describe the personal discourses of infertility, on the basis of interviews with women experiencing this condition. Aspects of women’s identity are identified through the analysis of the interviews, such as incompleteness, „defectiveness“, internalized stigma, the absence of the man, and a depersonalization of the body through the medical treatment. The authors come to the conclusion that the medical discourse has a dominant position in the media coverage of the topic, and the social stigmatization of childlessness is constructed in a context in which biological parenthood is favored, and the main responsibility for children and family is attributed to women. As a social and personal issue infertility has great scholarly potential for understanding the topics of wanted and not wanted parenthood, and the roles and identity of men and women in Bulgarian society.

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