Male childlessness: 'You think, If I’m not reproducing – then what am I?'
 

The men mourning the family they never had


I have written a lot about being a childless woman. About me being childless; about other women. But I’ve never written about men in the same situation. Why should I? If Mick Jagger can have a child who’s younger than his great-grandchild, there’s always hope. Right?

Wrong. Dr Robin Hadley, 58, and childless by circumstance, recently completed a PhD exploring the experiences of involuntarily childless older men. “I found,” he says, “there was little difference in the desire to become a parent between female and male childless individuals. But that study also indicated that for some male participants, not becoming a parent had a greater negative effect. That’s because there are no narratives around childlessness for men.”

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