TITLE:
Profile of Infertile Couples in an Urban Setting in southern Ghana, West Africa
AUTHORS:
Joycelyn Adjei-Mensah, Sebastian Derick Taylor, Bill Kwaku Koduah Boafo, Emmanuella Thompson, Maame Abena Wiredua Ayim, Diallo Abdoul Azize
KEYWORDS:
Infertility, Profile, Couples, Cape Coast, Ghana
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.15 No.12,
December
23,
2025
ABSTRACT: Objective: The purpose of this study is to identify the profile of infertile couples in an urban general hospital in southern Ghana and determine the infertility causes. Method: A cross-sectional hospital-based study with a retrospective data collection was carried out at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology unit of the University of Cape Coast Hospital, which serves as a general hospital in Cape Coast, between January 2018 and December 2019 to assess the profile and causes of infertility among couples seeking fertility treatment. A data extraction tool was used to collect secondary data from the hospital patients’ records. Results: The data of 103 couples were collected over a 24 months period. The mean age of the Female and Male respondents were 35.51 years and 37.45 years, respectively with a standard deviation of 5.55 to 5.20, respectively. Most (83.5%) of the couples were married and Urban residence was the most common, 69.9%. All the females’ respondents never smoked and neither consumed alcohol. Among the male counterpart, 16.5% had smoked in the past or were smoking currently and 63.10% of the males drink alcohol currently. Sexual intercourse was currently inadequate among 63.10% of the couples. The prevalence of infertility in the study population was 15.3%. More than half of the couples (53.4%) had primary infertility and anovulatory causes were present in 41.7% of the causes. Conclusion: Infertile couples in this setting are in their mid to late thirties, living in urban areas, almost all are married, majority working as traders or self-employed. Specifically, the women are nonsmokers and don’t drink alcohol while more than half of the men drink alcohol. Most of the women are overweight or obese. Primary infertility and unovulatory causes were the most common.