Abstract
Biohacking involves individuals determining, developing, and directing relevant activities to meet their personal biological goals. Biohacking fertility is a resilient method that trans and genderqueer people use to meet their reproductive and family-planning needs in the face of historic medical marginalization and oppression. In this study, nine participants were recruited from three different Facebook groups specific to queer and trans fertility, family planning, pregnancy, and parenting. Each participant’s posts and comments to their respective Facebook group(s) were analyzed, followed by interviews with participants. A total of 1,155 Facebook posts were collected. Biohacking activity—understood as a web of activity including gathering information, applying knowledge to personal circumstances, and sharing personal experiences and knowledge—was found in each of the three groups. Participants identified these online groups as safer spaces to learn more about their own fertility and find community. Participants were active in these groups to biohack their fertility at home and to become empowered at the doctor's office or fertility clinic, ultimately achieving agency in their fertility and family planning.
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Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank their online biohacking community and their partner Jean, who sustained them as they biohacked their own fertility and grew their family. Additionally, the author would like to thank Dr. RunningHawk Johnson for providing encouragement and feedback from this project’s inception and Liz Siler for her unending support as this piece was developed.
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Endnotes
1 A note on language: Within this paper, trans is used as an expansive term to include a host of identities such as transgender, trans, genderqueer, and more. Similarly, throughout the literature review, queer is used as an expansive word over LGBT and other variants, and trans is explicitly used to reflect studies that specifically consider individuals within trans communities. The author also acknowledges that not all people who are intended to be included with the terms queer and trans identify or relate with these labels. Language around sexuality and gender is “permanently unstable” and definitions often operate through exclusion, thus the language used throughout this article is meant to be expansive by intentionally not defining all terms and identities explicitly (Wilchins 2011, 43).
2 Malatino ultimately suggests that transhumanism and capitalism are pervasive, and thus no biohacking is untouched by these underlying values.
3 Sterilization is not limited to trans people and has been a eugenics tactic used against people of color, people with disabilities, and other marginalized communities. Those with intersecting marginalized identities are especially vulnerable to such practices (for example, trans women of color). These compounding marginalizations become clear when considering the high rates of incarceration for trans women of color, who are often only allowed to be housed among those with the same gender identity if they have undergone surgeries tantamount to sterilization (McDonald 2015).
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Wright, S. Biohacking Queer and Trans Fertility: Using Social Media to Form Communities of Knowledge. J Med Humanit 44, 187–205 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-022-09776-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-022-09776-9