‘It Doesn’t Match My Blood’: Contraceptive Side Effects and Kassena Women in Northern Ghana

Abstract

Concern about side effects is one of the most commonly cited reasons for women’s non-use of contraceptives in sub-Saharan Africa, and the most common reason why women discontinue family planning. While studies find that some of women’s worries about contraceptives are based on distressing side effects, such as menstrual disruption, nausea, weight gain and delays in fertility, researchers frequently focus on misinformation spread by rumour. These studies decontextualize women’s concerns from the larger gendered context of their lives. Drawing on ethnographic field research carried out in northern Ghana with a feminist approach to understanding reproduction, this chapter examines women’s concerns about side effects, and the impact of these concerns on family planning practice. I show that despite anxiety about side effects, and their real physical, social and economic consequences, some women’s conceptions of the action of contraceptives on their bodies are pragmatic. Ethnogynecological perceptions of the importance of blood matching, combined with the importance of having small families for economic success, often encourage contraceptive use and mitigate the action of side effects rather than prompt non-use or discontinuation.

Citation

Wallace, L. (2017), "‘It Doesn’t Match My Blood’: Contraceptive Side Effects and Kassena Women in Northern Ghana", Bonifacio, G.T. (Ed.) Global Currents in Gender and Feminisms, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 197-209. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78714-483-520171019