Grant: Catalyst Grant: Psychosocial Issues Associated with Assisted Human Reproduction

Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and transsexual (LGBT) people choose to parent. However, the majority of them must rely on outside assistance to create their families, including use of assisted human reproduction (AHR) services. As a result, LGBT people make up a significant proportion of AHR service users in some parts of Canada (e.g., as reported by one Toronto clinic, up to 30%). Despite this high rate of service utilization, much of existing academic literature about LGBT people and AHR services is comprised of position papers debating whether LGBT people should have access to AHR services, based primarily on societal beliefs about the presumed inadequacy of LGBT people as parents. In contrast, the impact of these societal beliefs on provision of AHR services to LGBT people has not been well studied. The new Assisted Human Reproduction Act includes a non-discrimination clause barring discrimination based on sexual orientation or marital status. In this context, it is critical to determine to what extent AHR services are meeting the family creation needs of Canadian LGBT people. The goal of this qualitative community based participatory research project is to examine the experiences of LGBT people in Ontario who have used AHR services, including barriers and facilitators to access to care, quality of services received and differences across the identity groups of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people. This Ontario-based research project will ultimately inform Canada-wide research about the experiences of LGBT people with AHR services, in order to assist AHR service providers across the country in upholding the AHRA's non-discrimination clause.