The impact of perceived stigma and mediating social factors on infertility-related stress among women seeking infertility treatment in Southern Ghana

Donkor, Ernestina; Sandall, Jane

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.06.003

Cited by 135 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…In Uganda, figures remained rather stable with four to seven children per woman; yet, huge differences are found between districts, rural and urban areas (WHO 2014). Notwithstanding declines in fertility in Ghana, normative mainstream culture in both countries demands a couple to have children, in order to be socially accepted and respected as complete human beings (Donkor and Sandall 2007;Dyer 2007). As in other sub-Saharan African countries, children give meaning and worth to marriage, while marriage and family are highly valued religious and societal aspects.…”

Section: Fertility and Infertility: Figures And Local Perceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnational connections of health professionals: medicoscapes and assisted reproduction in Ghana and Uganda

Hörbst

Gerrits

2016

Ethnicity & Health

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Objectives. Based on our comparative fieldwork in two private fertility clinics in Accra (Ghana) and Kampala (Uganda), we explore the transnational mobility of providers involved in assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) and analyze how resulting transnational networks influence the realization and appropriation of these therapeutic treatments. By exploring these case studies from developing countries, this article intends to contribute to the field of studies that examine the diversification and complexity of migration and health care. Design. We first summarize the dynamics affecting the health-care systems in Ghana and Uganda over the last decades. Then, we describe the transnational mobility engaged in the two clinics. Through the case studies, we highlight how ARTs are realized and appropriated in the two receiving countries, and the role transnational contacts play within the negotiations of medical ethos and financial interests. By using the concept of medicoscapes, we analyze the worldwide connections between ART providers, the institutions they work in, their medical practices, artifacts, and their regimes of medical knowledge. Result. Transnational professional contacts have been essential to the setup of both clinics offering ARTs in Ghana and Uganda. These contacts developed along colonial and post-colonial links, integrating also south-south relationship. The clinics' directors act as entrepreneurs and creative decision-makers who capitalize on their transnational professional network. The case studies show the diverse transnational entanglements in both clinics and demonstrate the frictions between the doctors' entrepreneurial interests, medical concerns and cultural values. Conclusion. The transnational professional contacts expose both clinics to varying practices and debates, and make them into sites for negotiating distinct clinical practices. They provoke frictions between entrepreneurial interests and medical concerns including cultural values. In current medicoscapes, in a situation of full absence of any form of financial support and of any national ART regulation in Ghana and Uganda, clinic directors are in the position to apply those practices that fit their interests and local circumstances best.

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Section: Fertility and Infertility: Figures And Local Perceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnational connections of health professionals: medicoscapes and assisted reproduction in Ghana and Uganda

Hörbst

Gerrits

2016

Ethnicity & Health

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“…Previous studies of infertility among Ghanaian women have found an association with high rates of distress and depression (Alhassan, Ziblim, & Muntaka, 2014;Donkor & Sandall, 2007;Tabong & Adongo, 2013b). Takyi and Broughton (2006) found that ethnic identification may influence divorce.…”

Section: Family and Fertility In Ghanamentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Importantly, while some of this literature focuses specifically on childlessness (for example, Donkor, 2008), the negative consequences of infertility are not exclusively the purview of childless women. Previous research has suggested that the association between parity and infertility-related stress is not straightforward, finding no statistically significant difference in the effects primary versus secondary infertility on stress (Donkor & Sandall, 2007). Likewise, qualitative work among women with perceived infertility in Ghana has shown that both childless women and women with children suffer similar negative consequences of infertility, including relationship disruption (Fledderjohann, 2012).Childbearing is central not only to marriage, but also more broadly to adult life in SSA.…”

Section: Infertility and Relationship Stability In Ssamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Notably, culturally-specific definitions of infertility may include not only childlessness, but also not having 'enough' children; consequences of secondary infertility (that is, subsequent to the birth of a child) can also be quite severe (Donkor & Sandall, 2007;Leonard, 2002). Infertility negatively impacts and is impacted by factors such as psychological distress, marital instability, and stigmatization (Boerma & Urassa, 2001;Donkor & Sandall, 2007;Dyer, 2007;Fledderjohann, 2012;Hollos, Larsen, Obono, & Whitehouse, 2009;Hollos & Whitehouse, 2014;Leonard, 2002;Okonofua, 1999;Sundby & Jacobus, 2001;Tabong & Adongo, 2013a). Yet much remains underexplored about the relationship between infertility and social outcomes (Rouchou, 2013), including implications for romantic partnerships.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, women in Ghana still face considerable social pressure to have children (Donkor & Sandall, 2007;Fledderjohann, 2012;Tabong & Adongo, 2013a, 2013b. Infertility may still have a strong impact on relationship stability in spite of progress on social indicators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Difficulties Conceiving and Relationship Stability in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Ghana

Fledderjohann

2017

Eur J Population

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Little is known about the relationship between self-identified difficulties conceiving, biomedical infertility, and union instability in sub-Saharan Africa. Previous research suggests that infertility increases the risk of psychological distress and marital conflict, encourages risky sexual behavior, and deprives infertile individuals and couples of an important source of economic and social capital.Qualitative research has suggested that there may be a link between infertility and divorce; less is known about the implications of infertility for unmarried couples. In this paper, discrete-time hazard Results show a positive relationship between perceived difficulties conceiving and relationship instability for both married women and those in nonmarital sexual unions; this relationship, however, does not hold for biomedical infertility. Future research should examine this relationship using nationally representative data in a cross-national comparison to determine whether results hold across the subcontinent.

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Perceptions and beliefs of lay people from northern Uganda regarding surgery for diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer

2018

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The impact of perceived stigma and mediating social factors on infertility-related stress among women seeking infertility treatment in Southern Ghana

Cited by 135 publications

References 46 publications

Transnational connections of health professionals: medicoscapes and assisted reproduction in Ghana and Uganda

Transnational connections of health professionals: medicoscapes and assisted reproduction in Ghana and Uganda

Difficulties Conceiving and Relationship Stability in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Ghana

Perceptions and beliefs of lay people from northern Uganda regarding surgery for diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer

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