Fertility Problems and Fertility Care in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Kenya

Having children is important to most people. Nevertheless, fertility care for involuntarily childless couples is not a high priority for governments in developing countries. Governments and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) in these countries give more urgency and money to programs which support contraception and safe abortions, because of concerns, for example, about population growth and life-threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS. In highly pronatalist countries, however, the consequences of having fertility problems can have an enormous negative impact on the life and well-being of involuntarily childless couples. The focus of this chapter will be on infertility, fertility problems and involuntary childlessness in Kenya. In this chapter we describe the findings of a mixed method study among men and women with fertility problems that was carried out in Kenya in 2016. The following themes are addressed: knowledge of fertility problems, the need to have children, rejections from society because of not having a child, fertility-related quality of life, loneliness versus support and sharing, and fertility treatment (considerations and experiences).