Josefin persdotter chalmers

Thanks to advances in the technique, IVF is now par for the course as an infertility treatment, and most EU states in principle offer some state-funded coverage. A range of AI design biases are actually concealed through being black-boxed. Whereas expecting mothers are understood to bond to their forthcoming child already through the sensation of caring it within them, expecting partners are expected to have less access to such embodied feelings.

Föreläsningen är särskilt relevant för HR-personal, ledning, arbetsmiljöombud och fackliga representanter, men alla medarbetare kan dra nytta av innehållet.

Varför är det viktigt?

• Det främjar anställdas hälsa, välmående och trivsel
• Det bidrar till ett inkluderande och jämställt arbetsklimat
• Det stärker varumärket och attraherar medarbetare
• Det ökar verksamhetens lönsamhet och produktivitet

Föreläsningen bygger på forskning, aktuell statistik och beprövad erfarenhet.

Keeping this in mind, I will first discuss the speculative experiments I conducted as part of an artistic research project, to imagine a world where the use of artificial wombs for full-term gestation is normalized. As for AI, STS scholars have shown that it frequently favors particular social presuppositions, perspectives, roles, and dynamics. Menstruation is thus conceptualized as ‘body-blood-product’ entanglements, or what I theorize as menstrual materialities.

The Ambivalent Future of Gestation

Ji Young Lee, University of Copenhagen

What is known as assisted reproductive technologies (ART) was once synonymous with the innovative In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) method since the late 70s.

Without the desired amount of medical attention, people with PCOS prefer to use the technologies of daily lifestyle management to regulate ovulatory cycles. At the same time, bioethicists anticipate ectogestation, a process in which artificial amnion and placenta technology (AAPT) might one day be used to carry out a partial or even full period of gestation outside of the human body.

Since the mid 1990’s, when it was developed by a team at Uppsala university, it has become widely adopted globally, praised for its simplicity and efficacy; “the gold standard” of SUI treatment. The so called TVT– (Tension-free Vaginal Tape) procedure is the most common treatment for so called Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI).

The same is true for the menstruating body whose fluidity depends on menstrual technologies as pads, tampons, menstrual cups and period panties to control the menstrual blood in accordance with social norms. This project explores how this technology is enacted within the Swedish medical community on the one hand and within those who seek and receive the treatment on the other, exploring tensions within/between TVT as “good care” or ”bad care”, as “emancipatory” or “repressive”; as “safe” or “risky”.

Her research primarily focuses on hygiene technologies and menstruation.

In an ongoing postdoctoral project (FORMAS 2025–2027), Persdotter compares Swedish and Finnish bathroom standards and their impact on menstruating individuals. Central to the study is the bidet shower, a standard feature in Finland (and many other countries) but virtually unknown in Sweden.

Sociology of Health & Illness, 24(6): 771-795.

Artificial Wombs and Assemblages of Care

Oshin Siao Bhatt, Chalmers University of Technology - Science, Technology and Society Division

In feminist STS, Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) have been deemed technologies of disruption, hope, and maintenance.

Non-humans, exemplified by a creative exercise of making theatre menstrual blood or gifted period panties along with a diary, are differently than researchers capable of asking material questions, and travelling into otherwise closed intimate spaces and back into the interview situation.

These daily technologies – such as devices for prepping healthy meals, equipment for workouts at home and in the gym, and dietary supplements such as Inositol - offer both reproductive and general health benefits. Patient activists have voiced experiences of devastating health complications, and TVT has been called a global “gynecological scandal”.

About 1400 patients had the procedure done in Sweden in 2021. The advertised idea was that when the mother felt the baby move, she pressed a button on her bracelet, which created a vibrating buzz on her bracelet-wearing partner’s wrist.  Further, I will present early ideas for my PhD thesis, which will depart from the speculative and seek to study the everyday clinical experiences of using artificial wombs, by drawing upon current experiences of interfacing with Neonatal Intensive Care Units.

The multiple body and technology: entanglements of polycystic ovary syndrome

Yulia Karpova, University of Southern Denmark

My paper analyses the everyday practices surrounding polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), focusing on fertility.

These technologies have reshaped how reproduction, childbirth, and kinship are understood, and provided alternative methods of procreation for those unable to do so through coitus. (ESHRE) In more recent years, however, gestation has emerged as the next frontier for the innovation of ART. In 2014, the successful birth of a child via uterus graft in Sweden was hailed as a ground-breaking moment for uterus transplantation (UTx), a procedure which had been attempted unsuccessfully by various research teams around the world for years prior, to enable people without a functioning uterus to experience pregnancy.