Pattern of Socio-Demographic and Reproductive Profile of Patients Attending the Infertility Clinic of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria

Abstract
Background: Infertility is a growing universal problem cutting across all cultures and societies all over the world and has tremendous impact on the quality of life of women and their psychological well-being. In Nigeria and most parts of the sub-Saharan Africa, so much premium is placed on child birth. While infertility is not actually a life-threatening disorder, it has negative social and mental consequences on the couples.

Objective: To determine the pattern of socio-demographic and reproductive profile of patients attending the infertility clinic of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria. Method: This was a cross-sectional study that was conducted to determine the pattern of sociodemographic and reproductive profile of patients with infertility using a structured questionnaire. The respondents were recruited from the infertility clinic of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria between August and October 2018. The data was analyzed using SPSS 20 version. Result: The ages of the respondents ranged from 18 to 49 years of which 39% of them were between 26-33 years with a mean age of 29.2 years (SD: ± 2 years). Over 80% of respondents were married in a monogamous family setting while 18.4% were in a polygamous family setting and majority (91.2%) were in their first order of marriage while 7.8% were in their second and third order of marriage. Fifty-four percent of respondents had tertiary level of education and 43% of respondents were unemployed. Majority (56.9%) of the women in this study had secondary infertility while primary infertility accounted for 43.1%.

Conclusion: In this study, the age at which most patients presented with infertility was found to be above the age of maximum fecundability. Also, secondary infertility was found to be commoner than primary infertility. In view of these, public health programs need to incorporate infertility as an integral part of Reproductive Health Services.

KEYWORDS: Infertility, socio-demographic characteristics, reproductive profile.