Search

Background: Infertility is one of the most devastating experiences among infertile women in Nigeria. This is due to the socio-cultural significance attached to childbearing in Nigerian society. This study was conducted to assess and explore the psychological and social effects of infertility, identify the support system and coping strategies available to and utilized by infertile women selected from Gynecological Clinic of Owo Federal Medical Centre. Methods: The current research was a cross-sectional study and it used a convergent mixed method approach to collect data from September, 2017 to January, 2018. Structured questionnaire and in-depth interview guide were used to collect data from 152 and 10 infertile women who were selected by purposive sampling. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multinomial logistics regression in SPSS20 at 0.05 level of significance. The interviews were analyzed via content analysis. Results: The most prevalent psychological and social effects of infertility experienced by the women were frustration with the different treatment procedures (79.6%) and having sex for purpose of procreation only (78.9%). Higher age (OR = 2.95, CI = 1.68 - 5.29, P=0.01), monogamous family (OR = 6.70, CI = 1.68 - 26.74, P = 0.01) and parity (OR = 4.21, CI = 0.42 - 41.76, P=0.03) significantly influenced psychological effects of infertility while zero parity (OR =1.34, CI = 0.89 - 4.56, P = 0.01) was the only factor that significantly determine the social effects of infertility. The qualitative results show that the women experienced a range of psychological and social issues ranging from grief to negative self-concept, inordinate desire for sexual intercourse, societal stigma, social withdrawal and isolation. Conclusion: The study concluded that infertile women experience a range of psychological and social issues. The findings from both the quantitative and qualitative assessment indicated the need to provide more psychosocial support for women with infertility.

Background: Menopause has been associated with decline in sexual well-being among women. The quality of sexual interactions in heterosexual relationship are increasingly being considered as an important indicator of positive health and quality of life. Objectives: This article describes the sexual health status of menopausal women and the challenges preventing them from having a fulfilling sexual life. Method: This was an exploratory qualitative interview. Seventeen (17) menopausal women were interviewed individually and face-to-face using semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were analyzed using content and thematic analysis. Results: The analysis yielded two themes for sexual health status; (a) good sexual health status and (b) poor sexual health status. Majority of the study participants claimed to have poor sexual health status. The challenges to having a fulfilling sexual life yielded four themes; (a) fear (b) lack of sexual partner (c) ageing process and (c) being breadwinner of the family. Conclusion: The study concludes that majority of the women in the study have poor sexual health status and diverse challenges to having a fulfilling sexual life. This article offers a premise for healthcare providers to see the necessity to inquire about sexual health from post-reproductive age women and to provide necessary support that can help improve their sexual health.

Responding to the psychosocial health needs of the vulnerable population has been considered as a significant public health issue that must be addressed through access to public health professionals. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of a training program on nurses and teachers’ knowledge of psychosocial health needs of vulnerable children and the impact this had on children’s resilience and psychosocial health outcomes (self-esteem, social connection, anxiety, and depression). The result showed a significant increase in the knowledge mean scores of both nurses and teachers 6 weeks post intervention. Children’s depression scores significantly reduced post intervention. Their resilience, self-esteem, and social connection were also significantly improved, while no significant reduction was found in their anxiety scores. The results of the pilot study suggest that a more rigorous study be conducted to further ascertain the effectiveness of the various interventions used in this study while taking into consideration the challenges raised by the authors.

This descriptive study examined the perception of safety and utilization of herbal remedies during pregnancy using a convenience sampling of 300 women. The women who participated in the study were selected at household level from rural communities in Ife-North local government area of Osun state in Nigeria. Data was collected with the aid of semi-structured questionnaire using interviewer-administered method after informed consent had been taken from each participant. The results show that the women had positive perception about the safety and efficacy of herbs over conventional drugs in pregnancy. Greater percentage of the participants studied had used herbs at one point or the other during pregnancy. Local concoction also referred to as “ Agbo ” was the most used herbs by the women. The need for laboratory exploration of these herbs was emphasized by this study because of the high usage by pregnant women without any empirical evidence on its safety and efficacy.