Beyond the Silence: How Men Navigate Infertility Through Digital Communities and Data Sharing

Paper Title

Beyond the Silence: How Men Navigate Infertility Through Digital Communities and Data Sharing

Publication Info

• Topic area: Digital support networks for male infertility
• Keywords: Male infertility, Reddit, digital communities, Traditional Masculinity Ideologies, peer support, trauma-informed design, moderation, cross-posting, network analysis, topic modeling

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Male infertility is under-discussed, stigmatized, and lacks formal support systems. Traditional Masculinity Ideologies (TMI) discourage emotional expression and help-seeking, leaving men isolated and underserved in infertility care.
• Significance: Addressing male infertility can improve psychological well-being, reduce stigma, and enhance access to reproductive health resources for men.
• Motivation and related work: Prior studies have explored online health communities for women but have largely overlooked male infertility. Existing research highlights the potential of digital platforms to foster emotional expression and peer support, but the dynamics of male-centric infertility communities remain underexplored.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Analyzing Reddit’s r/maleinfertility community to understand how men navigate infertility through digital support networks, focusing on discourse, engagement, and community structure.
• Novelty:
  1. Large-scale analysis of 11,095 posts and 79,503 comments using topic modeling, network analysis, and time-lagged regression.
  2. Identification of r/maleinfertility as a hybrid space functioning as a diagnostic hub, therapeutic commons, and governed institution.
  3. Examination of cross-posters as navigators and mentors bridging male-centric and broader infertility communities.
  4. Insights into trauma-informed design for stigmatized health communities.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Topic modeling using BERTopic to identify 115 discussion topics grouped into Medical Advice, Emotional Support, and Moderation themes.
  • Network analysis of 8,536 users to detect micro-communities and assess structural cohesion, reciprocity, and topical diversity.
  • Time-lagged regression to identify predictors of sustained engagement.
  • Classification of cross-posters and analysis of their roles using SHAP values.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Medical advice dominated discourse (63.3%), followed by moderation (29.2%) and emotional support (7.4%).
  • Sustained engagement correlated with actionable guidance and affiliation language but not emotional processing.
  • Cross-posters (20% of users) acted as navigators and mentors, transferring knowledge and aligning norms across communities.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Demonstrated that r/maleinfertility avoids echo chamber dynamics, with cohesive but topically diverse clusters.
  • Identified unique roles (e.g., mentors, hope brokers, system critics) that extend traditional peer support models.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Mixed-methods approach combining computational modeling and qualitative coding.
  • Evaluation metrics included coherence scores for topic modeling (best model coherence = -0.79) and predictive accuracy for engagement (R² = 0.66).
• Limitations and future work:
  • Uncertainty about why replies sometimes reduce future engagement; qualitative interviews are needed.
  • Moderation practices were both praised and criticized; further study of moderators’ challenges is recommended.
  • Longitudinal analysis of cluster evolution and user trajectories could deepen insights.

Summary

This study examines how men navigate infertility through Reddit’s r/maleinfertility community, revealing it as a hybrid space for diagnostics, therapy, and governance. Medical advice dominates discussions, while emotional support and moderation provide essential infrastructure. Sustained engagement is driven by actionable guidance and affiliation language, with cross-posters playing key roles in bridging communities. The findings inform trauma-informed design principles, emphasizing role-aware systems, navigation support, and inclusive moderation. Future work should explore response dynamics, moderation challenges, and the evolution of community structures over time.