Insights into unmet need in Ghana

This study aims to establish the relative importance of lack of access and attitudinal resistance toward use of family planning for different population and geographical strata in Ghana. It is intended to inform policymakers on the priority that should be given to behavior change communication or improved access/information, and also helpful to interventions to reduce health concerns and fear of side effects, such as provision of broader method mix and better counseling. The most far reaching implication concerns the reproductive behavior of the best educated women and those living in the capital or surrounding areas. The results suggest an enduring resistance to the dominant hormonal methods, much of it based on experience of side effects during prior episodes of use. There is a strong case for broadening the method-mix by promotion of non-hormonal methods, such as IUDs and sterilization