Published Work

Egg Freezing
Along with my co-investigator, Mary Patrick, I conducted an interview-based study of women who have considered or undergone elective egg freezing in the New York City metro area. It is now published in the American Sociological Review.

Potential Pregnancy in Contraceptive Counseling Sessions
I examined how medical providers diagnose patients with pregnancy before it is possible to use a pregnancy test. I analyzed transcripts from the Patient-Provider Communication about Contraception study. This article is now published in Social Science & Medicine

The ‘Chore’ of Sex for the Purpose of Pregnancy

Through interviews with heterosexual married couples struggling to conceive, I found that sex for the purpose of pregnancy became a highly rationalized project in which participants attempt to perfect their timing and promote the best chance for conception. Using the third shift as a theoretical framework, this article demonstrates how sex for pregnancy becomes a gendered chore involving emotion work, cognitive labor, and body work. This article is published in Sociological Forum

Switching Clinics

This article argues that one important way that people exert autonomy in consumer medicine is by switching clinics. This study finds that nearly half of participants switched clinics to reorient their patient careers that were not progressing satisfactorily, attempting to reset, redirect, and escalate them. This article emphasizes that patients exercise autonomy not just over treatment decisions but also over the direction and progress of patient careers themselves. This article is published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior