Abstract

Women’s fertility goals, depending on where they are in their reproductive life course, can range from preventing pregnancy to preventing infertility. In sub-Saharan Africa, almost 25% of reproductive age women state that they do not want to get pregnant but are not using contraception. The primary reason for not using it is “health concerns.” Within this broad category, research shows more than half of men and women believe that contraceptives will cause infertility. Infertility can be devastating to women and unbeknownst to many, sub-Saharan Africa has some of the highest levels. In this presentation, Dr. Sedlander will discuss her mixed methods research (population level data, social network data, and qualitative data) which examines these issues and ideas for future work to design programs to address them.