After reviewing the available literature covering reproductive tourism and the conditions existing in Greece, the analysis now turns to direct encounters. The authors conducted these encounters with persons directly concerned with the object of investigation. The results from interviewing professionals and clients are presented and discussed. This constitutes the field research as part of the research agenda outlined in Chapter 1 of this research: What is, seen from a business perspective, the situation of reproductive tourism in Greece? And, what are the opportunities and shortcomings of this sector and what can be done to improve its obviously unsatisfactory situation?
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As had been addressed in Chapter 1 and shown in greater detail in Chapter 2, the situation of reproductive tourism in Greece has not been dealt with sufficiently by academic or corporate studies so far. Apart from a few exceptions, there’s a vast amount of information available which is related to reproductive tourism in Greece, like self-presentation of fertility centers or reports to be found in online forums etc., but not scientific analysis (Adamakidou & Kalokairinou-Anagnostopoulou, 2009; Doxiadis & Souliotis, 2012; Kadda, et al., 2010; Priporas, Laspa, & Kamenidou, 2008; Yfantopoulos, 2007). The authors’ field research, intended to fill this void, first discusses the professionals’ answers. Then the more numerous responses from the interviews distributed to clients will be analyzed. Here, the qualitative approach will be supplemented by means of quantitative analysis in order to process the bigger amount of data collected more properly.
As a necessary prerequisite to structure the evidence given by interviewees, a description of the five stages of assisted reproduction seen from the client’s perspective is presented in advance. These stages were not explained in detail so far, to avoid undue overloading with factual details. They result from the interviews presented below. While the evidence and topics that emerged from the interviews will be summed up after their presentation, it is useful to give an outline on the treatment process which clients are going through when seeking help to cure their fertility problems. This helps understanding the clients’ answers from their own perspective, which is in line with the finding presented in the conclusion of chapter 2 that satisfaction plays a pivotal role in the way clients evaluate reproductive care. These five stages are illustrated also in Figure 1 and are as follows: