A Qualitative Study Exploring Relationships Among Infertile Couples in the Gambia

In low-and middle-income countries, the focus has been traditionally on family planning and maternal and child health services for women who do bear children. However, in 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development has put infertility on the international health agenda. Studies on involuntary childlessness in low-and middle income countries have indeed shown significant psychological and social consequences, which appears worse then in high-income countries. It appears that the main hardship that infertile women endure are extramarital affairs, polygamy and divorce. To explore this, we carried out qualitative research to understand how infertile Gambians experience polygamy.