the Female Body GOVERNING

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karen throsby
nutrition, environmental hazards, and other practices with regard to
fertility, conception, and early pregnancy. It is also concordant with the
potent contemporary discourse of “helping yourself” in relation to health
care—a key feature of “somatic individuality.” Consequently, the vast
majority of the female participants in this study disciplined themselves
closely throughout the treatment process (and often for years prior
to that), drawing on common-sense knowledges of the importance of
rest, relaxation, and diet in achieving and sustaining a pregnancy, as
well as specifi c (alternative) therapeutic regimens of nutrition, stress
management, detoxifi cation, homeopathy, acupuncture, hypnosis, or
herbs, alongside the close monitoring of the body for signs of fertility
or pregnancy that was habitual to many of the women after years of
trying to conceive.
Responding to the commonly held fear on the part of the women
that they would “wash away” the transferred embryos if they went to the
toilet, one of the doctors I spoke to routinely told patients that they could
go bungee jumping and it would make no difference to implantation.
However, the majority of the participants disregarded these assurances
and focused instead on the measures that they perceived as potentially
effective in maximizing their chances of conception, for example, by
taking time off work for the two-week period following embryo transfer,
or eating certain foods and avoiding others. This was reinforced by the
women’s partners and other friends and relatives, who would chastise
them for “doing too much” or for failing to be positive. This highlights
the extent to which women are subject to the disciplinary surveillance of
others throughout their treatment, and therefore, that the disciplinary
techniques that they employ serve not only to preempt future feelings
of guilt about treatment outcome, but also demonstrate to others that
everything possible has been done.
This rigorous policing by both the self and others implies that a
successful outcome may be within the remit of the individual woman.
Arthur Frank describes this assertion of control as characteristic of the
disciplined body—that is, where the body is perceived as dissociated
from the self, and as something to be managed and controlled to
assert predictability (Frank, 1995, p. 41). Interestingly, Frank describes
disciplined bodies as making good patients (p. 42), although in this case
the patients clearly disregarded medical assurances that those measures
would make no difference. However, this deviation from medical advice
could only take place because none of the measures taken were perceived
by the doctors as actually endangering a successful outcome. Instead,
they were simply regarded as having no proven positive value, and
therefore, the participants saw themselves as having nothing to lose