Diane Tober, PhD

Assistant Adjunct Professor, Institute for Health and Aging

Dr. Tober is a cultural and medical anthropologist with a focus on gender and sexuality, the commodification of the body, science and technology studies, bioethics, and social and reproductive justice. She has been conducting research exploring egg donors’ decisions and experiences within the global market for human eggs since 2013. With funding from theNational Science Foundation, she is comparing egg donation in the United States and Spain. With a recent award from the UCSF National Center of Excellence for Research on Women, offered through The Bixby Center, she is launching a new study to compare the decisions and experiences of egg donors and egg freezers. She has conducted field research in Iran, Spain, and the United States.

Her first book, Romancing the Sperm: Shifting Biopolitics and the Making of Modern Families (2018), explores the intersections between the sperm banking industry, the men who provide sperm, and the single women and lesbian couples who use donor sperm to conceive a child. Tracing the changes in use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies from the 1990s to today, Romancing the Sperm investigates the role technology plays in the changing meanings of family.

In addition to her research, she is also producer/director of the documentary film, The Perfect Donor, currently in post production. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, The Social Science Research Council, The University of California, San Francisco, and American Institute for Iranian Studies, among others.

 

Areas of interest:

  • Assisted reproductive technologies
  • Reproductive health and decision-making
  • Bioethics
  • Social and reproductive justice

 

Education:

  • PhD in Medical Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and UCSF joint program 

 

In the news:

 

Publications: 
  1. Fertility and Sterility. Subjective psychological factors associated with egg donors undergoing additional donations after their first donation cycle. 2021; 114(3):e276. Diane Tober, PhD, Kevin S. Richter, PhD, Shannon Kokjohn, MSc, Dougie Zubizarreta, BA, Katarina Cook, BS, Said Daneshmand, MD . View Publication.
  2. Emotion, Embodiment, and Reproductive Colonialism in the Global Human Egg Trade. Gender, Work and Organization. 2021. Diane Tober and Charlotte Kroløkke. . View Publication.
  3. Sociology of Health and Illness. Review: C. Kroløkke, Global Fluids: The Cultural Politics of Reproductive Waste and Value. 2020. Diane Tober. . View Publication.
  4. The Oocyte Economy: The Changing Meaning of Human Eggs. Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews. 2020 Nov 1; 49(6):542-544. Tober TD. .
    View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
  5. Alignment between expectations and experiences of egg donors: what does it mean to be informed?. Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online. 2020; 12(2021):1-13. Diane Tober, Christina Garibaldi, Alden Blair, Kimberly Baltzell. View Publication.
  6. Fertility and Sterility. Frequency and Severity of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS) Among Oocyte Donors According to Trigger Type and Number of Eggs Retrieved. 2020; 114(3). Diane Tober, PhD, Kevin S. Richter, PhD, Cristina Garibaldi, MS, Kezia Mostak, MSShannon Kokjohn, MSc, Raquel Cool, BA, Dougie Zubizarreta, BA, Natalia Villegas, BS, Katarina Cook, BS, Said Daneshmand, MD ?. View Publication.
  7. Fertility and Sterility. Egg donor perceptions of long-term adverse outcomes. 2020; 114(3):e278-e279. Diane Tober, PhD, Kevin S. Richter, PhD, Cristina Garibaldi, MS, Kezia Mostak, MS, Natalia Villegas, BS, Dougie Zubizarreta, BA, Raquel Cool, BA, Katarina Cook, BS, Shannon Kokjohn, MSc, Said Daneshmand, MD . View Publication.
  8. Social Forces. Review of “Between Families and Frankenstein: The Politics of Egg Donation in the United States”. 2019. Diane Tober. . View Publication.
  9. Romancing the Sperm: Shifting Biopolitics and the Making of Modern Families. 2019; 240. Diane Tober. . View Publication.
  10. Evaluating the capacity of California's publicly funded universities to provide medication abortion. Contraception. 2018 10; 98(4):306-311. Raifman S, Anderson P, Kaller S, Tober D, Grossman D. PMID: 29778584.
    View in: PubMed   Mentions: 3     Fields:    
  11. Las bioeconomías de la provisión de óvulos en Estados Unidos y en España: una comparación de los mercados médicos y las implicaciones en la atención a las donantes. Revista de Anthropologia Social. 2018; 2(27):261-286. Diane Tober and Vincenzo Pavone. . View Publication.
  12. Introduction: Why Islam, Health and the Body?. Body & Society. 2007 Sep 1; 13(3):1-13. Tober TD, Budiani BD. .
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  13. Kidneys and Controversies in the Islamic Republic of Iran: The Case of Organ Sale. Body & Society. 2007 Sep 1; 13(3):151-170. Tober TD. .
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  14. “My Body Is Broken Like My Country”: Identity, Nation, and Repatriation among Afghan Refugees in Iran. Iranian Studies. 2007 Apr 16; 40(2):263-285. Tober TD. .
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  15. Introduction: Afghan Refugees and Returnees. Iranian Studies. 2007 Apr 16; 40(2):133-135. Tober TD. .
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  16. “My Body is Broken Like My Country”: Identity, Nation, and Repatriation among Afghan Refugees in Iran. Iranian Studies. 2007; 2(40). Tober, DM.
  17. "Fewer children, better life" or "as many as God wants"? Family planning among low-income Iranian and Afghan refugee families in Isfahan, Iran. Med Anthropol Q. 2006 Mar; 20(1):50-71. Tober DM, Taghdisi MH, Jalali M. PMID: 16612993.
    View in: PubMed   Mentions: 7     Fields:    Translation:HumansPHPublic Health
  18. Children in the Field and the Methodological Challenges of Research in Iran. Iranian Studies. 2004; 4(37):643. Tober, DM.
  19. Parents' Conceptualization of their Frozen Embryos. Fertility and Sterility. 2003; 3(80):49. Nachtigall R, Becker G, Tober D, Friese C, Butler A.
  20. Semen as Gift, Semen as Goods: Reproductive Workers and the Market in Altruism. Body & Society. 2001 Sep 1; 7(2-3):137-160. Tober TD. .
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  21. Semen as Gift, Semen as Goods: Reproductive Workers and the Market in Altruism. Body and Society. 2001; 7(2-3):137. Tober, Diane M .