Infertility and perceived chance of conception among men in Malawi

Figures & data

Table 1. Infertility-related constructs and survey items.

Construct	Survey item	Response options^a
Self-reported experienced infertility	Have you and a partner ever tried to conceive a pregnancy for two years or longer without conceiving in that time?	No (0) Yes (1)
Chance of conception	If you were to have sex and not use any method of contraception, how likely is it that your partner would become pregnant in the next year?	Certain (0) Likely (0) Unlikely (1) No chance (1) Don’t know (excluded)

^aWe dichotomized response options for chance of conception into ‘no chance/unlikely’ vs. ‘likely/certain’ based on distribution of responses (shown in Table 2).

Table 2. Participant characteristics (N = 484).

	n	%/mean (range)
Age (mean)	470	31.0 (17–56)
Age group
15–25	133	27.5%
26–35	219	45.3%
36–45	97	20.0%
46+	21	4.3%
Missing	14	2.9%
Number of living children (mean)	484	2.7 (0–15)
# Living children (categorical)
0 Children	63	13.0%
1 Child	76	15.7%
2 Children	116	24.0%
3 Children	96	19.8%
4+ Children	133	27.5%
Marital/cohabitation status
Current monogamous relationship	393	81.2%
Current polygamous relationship	40	8.3%
Not currently married/cohabiting	10	2.1%
Never married/cohabited	41	8.5%
Ever divorced (among ever-married) (n = 443)
Yes	143	32.3%
No	300	67.7%
Household wealth quintile (ownership of items)
1	93	19.2%
2	74	15.3%
3	104	21.5%
4	119	24.6%
5	94	19.4%
Number of years of education (mean)	474	5.7 (0–13)
Wants a(nother) child (ever)
Yes	375	77.5%
No	100	20.7%
Missing	9	1.9%
Desire for pregnancy in the next year
Strongly do not want	354	73.1%
Somewhat/slightly want/do not want	29	6.0%
Strongly want	101	20.9%
Self-reported infertility
Yes	65	13.4%
No	404	83.5%
Missing	15	3.1%
Chance of conception within 1 year
Certain	374	77.3%
Likely	82	16.9%
Unlikely	15	3.1%
No Chance	4	0.8%
Don’t know	9	1.9%

Table 3. Associations between experienced infertility and chance of conception (N = 460)^a.

	Experienced infertility
	No	Yes	p
Chance of conception			***
Certain/likely	97.2%	87.3%
No chance/ unlikely	2.8%	12.7%

^a***p < 0.001.

Table 4. Bivariable associations between participants’ sociodemographic characteristics and experienced infertility and chance of conception^a.

	Experienced infertility (n = 469)			Chance of conception (n = 475)
	No (n = 404)	Yes (n = 65)	p	Certain/likely (n = 456)	Unlikely/no chance (n = 19)	p
Age (mean)	30.9	33.3	0.03*	31.2	30.0	NS
Age group			0.03*			NS
15–25	27.5%	19.1%		27.3%	31.6%
26–35	48.4%	44.4%		47.0%	47.4%
36–45	20.6%	25.4%		21.2%	15.8%
46+	3.6%	11.1%		4.5%	5.3%
Number of living children (mean)	2.9	3.2	NS	2.9	2.4	NS
# Living children (categorical)			NS			NS
0 Children	11.1%	7.7%		11.6%	21.1%
1 Child	15.8%	18.5%		15.4%	26.3%
2 Children	25.3%	20.0%		24.1%	21.1%
3 Children	20.3%	21.5%		20.4%	15.8%
4+ Children	27.5%	32.3%		28.5%	15.8%
Marital/cohabitation status			NS			NS
Current monogamous relationship	82.9%	84.6%		82.2%	79.0%
Current polygamous relationship	8.2%	10.8%		8.6%	5.3%
Not currently married/cohabiting	2.2%	1.5%		1.8%	5.3%
Never married/cohabited	6.7%	3.1%		7.5%	10.5%
Ever divorced (among ever-married)			NS			NS
Yes	31.3%	38.1%		32.2%	35.3%
No	68.7%	61.9%		67.8%	64.7%
Household wealth quintile			NS			NS
1	19.8%	16.9%		20.0%	10.5%
2	14.4%	21.5%		15.1%	15.8%
3	21.0%	21.5%		20.6%	42.1%
4	25.7%	16.9%		25.0%	15.8%
5	19.1%	23.1%		19.3%	15.8%
Number of years of education (mean)	5.8	5.4	NS	5.7	5.9
Wants a(nother) child			NS			NS
Yes	78.0%	80.0%		78.6%	79.0%	NS
No	22.0%	20.0%		21.4%	21.0%
Desire for pregnancy in the next year			NS			NS
Strongly do not want	74.5%	69.2%		72.8%	73.7%
Somewhat/slightly want/do not want	5.9%	7.7%		6.1%	5.3%
Strongly want	19.6%	23.1%		21.1%	21.1%

^a*p < 0.05; NS: not significant; p-values are for Chi² tests (categorical variables) and F-tests (continuous variables).

Table 5. Logistic regression model predicting ever experienced infertility (N = 450)^a.

	AOR	95% CI	p
Age	1.06	1.0–1.12	0.02*
# Living children
0 Children	1.15	0.31–4.36	NS
1 Child	ref
2 Children	0.54	0.22–1.34	NS
3 Children	0.51	0.19–1.38	NS
4+ Children	0.40	0.13–1.26	NS
Marital status
Not married	ref
Married – monogamous	1.58	0.36–7l06	NS
Married – polygamous	1.98	0.35–11.10	NS
Household wealth score	1.02	0.83–1.25	NS
Years education	0.95	0.87–1.04	NS

^a*p < 0.05; NS: not significant.

Table 6. Logistic regression model predicting that conception is unlikely or there is no chance (N = 454)^a.

	AOR	95% CI	p
Age	1.08	0.98–1.19	NS
# Living children
0 Children	1.27	0.19–8.68	NS
1 Child	Ref
2 Children	0.32	0.08–1.38	NS
3 Children	0.20	0.03–1.19	NS
4+ Children	0.08	0.01–0.79	0.03*
Marital status
Not married	Ref
Married – monogamous	0.66	0.09–4.67	NS
Married – polygamous	0.52	0.03–8.80	NS
Household wealth score	1.10	0.73–1.51	NS
Years education	0.85	0.81–1.11	NS
Desire for pregnancy in the next year
Strongly do not want	Ref
Somewhat/slightly want/do not want	0.63	0.08–5.33	NS
Strongly want	0.68	0.20–2.33	NS

^a*p < 0.05; NS: not significant.