WOMEN AND ONLINE ENQUIRIES ON INFERTILITY ISSUES

Abstract

In certain parts of the world, a woman’s ability to produce children is especially pivotal. In Malaysia, for example, a barren woman suffers shame, humiliation and even risks losing her husband (Akhtar, 2011). As infertility is taboo in such society, women with infertility problem often suffer in silence (Evens, 2004). However, with the anonymity afforded by computer-mediated communication (CMC) (Herring, 2001), these women finally have a platform in which they can discuss and seek help without the anxiety of identity disclosure. However, not much is known on how these women communicate online. As yet, most CMC studies pertaining to language and culture have either focused on the western societies (Locher, 2006; Placencia, 2012), or the more researched eastern culture of the Japanese (Morrow, 2012). This study attempts to investigate how Malaysian women with infertility problem seek online advice on in-vitro fertilization (IVF), as well as the types of questions asked when seeking advice in terms of their forms and functions.  Using web content analysis method, 251 messages posted to an online forum for Malaysian women were analysed for their advice-seeking strategies. The findings revealed that the women employed three main strategies when seeking online advice: (1) question-asking, (2) problem-narration, and (3) explicit advice-request. The findings also showed that when questions were asked in relation to the infertility treatment, closed questions were preferred to open questions. In addition, it was also found that the questions did not only primarily performed the function of information-seeking, especially in relation to the IVF protocol, but the questions were also frequently intended to bond or connect with the message-recipient.