# Research



## Mel (Jan 1, 2002)

Last year some of the forum members supported by PhD project by sharing their experiences of work related stress, I have used the data provided to generate the following theory and I would appreciate your feedback about it:

The risks of telling employers about treatment need to be balanced against the benefits of disclosure. 

The risk of disclosure may include increased stress at work due to expectations of treatment success, emotional distress at treatment failure, being misunderstood, sexual discrimination for time taken off work for treatment, loss of earning or career prospects, having to use annual leave for treatment. 

The benefits of disclosure at work might include support and understanding from colleagues or managers, flexible working arrangements and relief at not having to hide a secret. 

Women who disclose their intention to have or participation in infertility treatment tend to do so in a controlled way, perhaps as part of formal request for time off , job interview or performance review. This allows them to finely balance the risks and benefits of disclosure vs non disclosure. 

Taking part in a clinical trial that required them to attend additional appointments might force them to disclose their treatment and the benefits of taking part in a trial may not be worth this risk.

Taking part in a trial may offer benefits but these are unknown particularly in a randomised trial where you might only receive a placebo.

Please can you tell me if this is an accurate representation of how you would approach the dilemma of telling your employers about your infertility treatmentYour responses will be used as part of my PhD thesis but would be anonymised and used as an aggregated quote so that they cannot be traced back to you.

Thank you for your help and best wishesYou can email me on [email protected]

Thank you for your help and best wishes
Claire Haresnape
Research Student
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
Queen Mary University of London


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