A Sociological Analysis of Concepts and traditional Infertility Treatment

It is impossible to explain the treatment patterns from the medical sciences point of view alone. The selection of treatment method could be mostly influenced by the cultural and social variables. Due to the high importance of fertility in some countries, particularly in our traditional culture, the infertile people try to use different treatment methods to treat their infertility ranging from traditional methods to modern ones. This study was done in Mazandaran province by the use of a mixed method. Applying a theoretical sampling, we selected our sample and employed in-depth face-to-face interviews with 28 infertile women and afterward we transcribed them. Then, the categories such as pilgrimage, treatment prayer, the person whose prayer is granted, and prayer writer were extracted from the interviews. After that, we did a survey and interviewed with 95 customers of the infertility centers of Mazandaran province using a random sampling method. The findings of the survey revealed that treatment prayer (21%) and pilgrimage (16%) had highest frequencies while seeing the local practitioner and believing in magician (2%) had the lowest frequency. In the end, based on the factors such as education, age, infertility time, place of residence, and family's income, the possibility of choosing each treatment method was examined.