The relationship between religion, culture, cost, ethics, and husband perception with the decision of women’s utilization of Assisted reproductive technology as method of infertility management

Context:

 Infertility is a global health problem characterized by inability of couple to achieve pregnancy after one year of regular unprotected sexual intercourse; or after 6 months if the woman is older than 35 years of age.

To examine the effect of determinants on the Utilization of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) among women Setting and Design: This is a cross sectional survey design conducted on women at the Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Fertility clinics in university of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin-City, Nigeria, 2020.

This study was conducted among 348 women, selected through stratified probability sampling method, and a self-structured questionnaire was designed, administered and same retrieved. Statistical Analysis Used: Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, means, standard deviation (SD) and Pearson Correlation Coefficient at 0.05 significant levels.

The mean (SD) of the determinants: religion, culture, cost, ethics, and husband perception were as follows: 2.47 ± 1.28, 2.34 ± 1.20, 3.37 ± 1.25, 2.35 ± 1.09, 2.33 ± 1.13 respectively. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient, shows significant relationship (P=<0.001, P=0.023) between cost, husband perception and the women decision, while there are no statistical relationship (P=0.591, P=0.892, P=0.934) between religion, culture, ethics and the decision for ART among women.

The cost of ART is a major factor, therefore, there is need for international efforts to facilitate globalization of ART services with special attention to manpower development, subsidization of the running cost and establishment a global partnership as obtained in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).