Victor Point is a photographer and co-author, with journalists Estelle Dautry and Pauline Pellissier, of Infertile generation? (Otherwise, 272 pages, 20 euros). A work between scientific investigation and the collection of testimonies. He also documented in photos the course of PMA carried out with his wife, published in 2020 in the magazine Polka. They perform together in the show Bliss Storiesadapted from the podcast of the same name and which resumes its tour in November.
What was your main discovery in conducting this survey?
I have been marked by inequality in all areas when it comes to infertility. We do not experience the same journeys depending on our region, age, medical history or income. Infertility is a mirror of all the inequalities that exist in society. Some areas remain very underserved. And, overall, a couple of young executives in their thirties in a big city will be able to adjust their schedules, go to a clinic to avoid waiting for the hospital and will be less constrained than a rural couple with lower incomes, with few jobs. flexible.
In the book, you speak of “male infertility” as a “persistent unthought”. Can you explain ?
If infertility remains a taboo, there are taboos within the taboo. A woman goes to see a gynecologist once a year while a man never goes to consult before being confronted with an infertility problem, when he could see an andrologist. This explains why, for a long time, infertility was considered a woman’s problem. We men also find it harder to talk about it than women, which can reinforce feelings of isolation. In the questionnaire that we carried out, only five men answered, out of five hundred people questioned. In medicine too, this remains an unthought. Male infertility is never treated in depth. As long as he ejaculates, the man is considered fertile.
One of your sub-sections is entitled “Considering the failure of MAP”. When do you decide to quit?
Everyone’s limits are very personal. Some stop after three or four years because they can’t take it anymore. Others stop for economic reasons, although even modest couples embark on the process because, for them, the social status of parents matters more than anything else. Some are limited to two IVFs, others refuse to be parents after 40 or to go through the donation of gametes. These are slow, step-by-step processes. In this journey to have a child, there is this obsession with the happy ending: the doctors, the entourage try to reassure us by telling us that it will end well. It also reassures them. But the child does not always arrive.
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