Long Covid and the restoration of fertility

What does it mean for carers when a chronic illness not only affects their own health but also transforms the family’s entire daily life? Long Covid can have far-reaching consequences for various aspects of life. Couples and families must adapt to changed living conditions: care arrangements need to be reorganised, career paths need to be adjusted, and financial uncertainties must be managed. At the same time, those affected are often faced with having to fight for social and institutional recognition of their condition, as well as for access to welfare benefits. Recognition thus becomes a central issue – both within the welfare state and in the day-to-day life of the family.

A new research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) is investigating how these different forms of recognition and non-recognition interrelate and what significance they hold for the restoration of reproductive capacity. The focus is on the question of how carers suffering from Long Covid can maintain or restore their ability to manage their own daily lives, to care for themselves and others, and to participate in social life.

The project ‘Long Covid and the restoration of reproductive capacity in couple relationships and within a gendered life context – social-legal and intersubjective non-recognition of ill carers’ (ReCoVer) is based at TU Dortmund University and Humboldt University of Berlin and will run for three years (1 October 2026 – 30 September 2029).

It is led by Prof. Dr. Mona Motakef, Nora Lege, Finja Tschampel and Loretta Strauß (TU Dortmund) and by Prof. Dr. Christine Wimbauer, Nadja Kufner, Anna Lena Zahn and Alexandra Klepp (Humboldt University of Berlin).

Further information:

ge.sowi.tu-dortmund.de/forschung/forschungsprojekte/dfg-long-covid/