Choosing therapies: a Senegalese woman's experience with infertility

In this article I examine a Senegalese woman's experience in selecting treatments for infertility. A critical-interpretive approach is employed to place in context this woman's therapy selection process. Treatments are revealed through illness narrative, interviews, and participant observation. This case study illustrates the variability of choices available and the factors influencing the selection of different therapies over time. These factors include availability of different therapies as well as the meanings of infertility and the therapies. The social, economic, and political access to treatments permitted this individual to seek therapies that gave meaning to why she was experiencing infertility. The decision-maker predominantly chose a traditional form of treatment, gris-gris, amulets worn about the body. After continual use, she found them ineffective and then used allopathic medicine with various other treatments including prayer, plants, and spirit divination. Overall, this decision-maker's strategies are rooted in the belief that she must ardently search for a solution to Allah's challenge of infertility. (To ensure the confidentiality of all individuals mentioned in this research, I have changed their names in this article.)