Fertility speak: language and the patient

Abstract

As the science of reproductive medicine continues to sprint ahead, patients and doctors are still wrestling with the increasingly imprecise and irrelevant terminology of the field. Further, the blurred boundaries between the clinical and social meanings of words such as "infertility" leave patients grappling with the often pejorative connotations associated with the terms, underscoring the need for the development of a socially neutral, clinically relevant, easily understood language of infertility.