Patterns and predictors of infertility among African women: a cross-national survey of twenty-seven nations.

The purpose of this study is to provide a comparative framework within which the infertility rates across sub-Saharan Africa may be assessed. A measure of infertility is used that provides for reliable estimates of national prevalence rates in 27 African nations. The results indicate considerable variation in infertility rates between nations across the continent. Whatever the national rate, within each nation infertility is strongly associated with social, behavioral and cultural factors that are known to put women at risk for sexually transmitted diseases and other reproductive tract infections most closely associated with clinical infertility.