in March or January I start my period on the 15

th,

 I know that by the 15

th

 of the next 

month, February 15

th,

 I will have my period; so I know how to take care of myself. [Zoe]  

The girls used their awareness of the cycle, sometimes with the help of their mothers, to 

practice periodic abstinence. Wanda, for example, said, 

When it gets to my time of the month and I menstruate, [mother] cautions me to take care 

of myself. [Wanda] 

However, the girls were not always able to follow through with the practice.  For 

example, Opal said that she generally would not go to her boyfriend's house until 1 week after 

menstruation, but she also tells the following story: 

On one of my visits to the boy's house, I had just ended my period earlier in the day, and 

he wanted to have sex that night. I refused, but he forced me. A month later, I didn't 

menstruate and that was when I realized I was pregnant. [Opal] 

Periodic abstinence, even practiced according to nonbiological theories of the body is not 

possible without the cooperation of the boyfriend. One participant who admitted that she did not 

know when the fertile period was, explained that she prevents pregnancy as follows: 

But what I do know is that if I sleep with my boyfriend every day, I never get pregnant. 

But if I sleep with him periodically, like once or twice a week, then I'm most likely to get 

pregnant. So I sleep with my boyfriend every day in order to prevent pregnancy. 

The problem with this widespread understanding of the fertile period and practice of 

periodic abstinence is that it is incompatible with the biological understanding of ovulation, 

which often caused women to use periodic abstinence in ways that promoted pregnancy rather 

than prevented it.  

4.6 

Using Modern Contraception: Understanding and Practice 

Besides using periodic abstinence (according to nonbiological ideas of the fertile period), 

slightly more than half of the participants said that they had at least tried some form of modern 

contraception. The Ghana Social Marketing Foundation supplies the local pharmacies in Ga 

Mashi with different types of condoms (both male and female), the  Secure  brand of oral 

contraceptives, and foam tablet vaginal inserts; according to their local pharmacists, they are sold 

at a subsidized price to local residents. One of the three pharmacists interviewed said that rather 

than selling contraceptives to unmarried clients, he refers them to the family planning clinic 

nearby. The others said that they would sell to unmarried clients. Condoms, the pharmacists said, 

were the most popular contraceptives and that it is usually the male who buys them. Participants 

said that condoms and Secure were usually purchased at a pharmacy rather than at the clinic. 

The majority of the participants in the study named and discussed several methods of 

contraception during their interviews. Some had heard about them in school, others at the clinic, 

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