In this article, we offer insights into how individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) share information about their disease with a romantic partner. Using communication privacy management as a sensitizing theoretical construct, four themes emerged following 13 qualitative interviews with persons with CF. Themes about sharing CF-related information with a romantic partner include weighing the risks and benefits of sharing information, the role of health-related triggered rules, the motivations for disclosures, and the reactions from outsiders. Implications of the research suggest a need for more nuanced understandings of how privacy rules are communicated in relationships, how the mismanagement of co-owned information influences future disclosures, how the public-private nature of rare genetic illnesses is managed, and how people with genetic illnesses make disclosure decisions.
Keywords: chronic illness; communication; communication privacy management; cystic fibrosis; families; fertility; genetic disorders; genetics; health; illness and disease; information seeking; interpretive approach; lived experience; privacy; qualitative methods; quality of life; reproduction; romantic relationships; semistructured interviews; uncertainty.