"It’s different for men": masculinity and IVF

Drawing on interviewdata with men andwomen who have engaged with in vitro fertilization (IVF) unsuccessfully, this article explores the ways in which men experience and make sense of the failure of treatment. Focusing on men’s experiences of infertility, their perceptions of IVF as a technology, and their involvement in the IVF process, the analysis highlights the ambivalent relationship between men and IVF as a technology; the predominance of hegemonic masculine culture in mediating the meaning of IVF for both men and women, particularly in relation to the association of fertility and virility in the normative construction of masculinity; and the very traditionally gendered emotional scripts that structure the experience of IVF and its failure.