Senderowicz publishes in Studies in Family Planning

Leigh Senderowicz, ScD, MPH, assistant professor in the UW Ob-Gyn Division of Reproductive and Population Health, is building a distinguished reputation as a leading scholar in contraceptive autonomy, with numerous publications and international presentations on the topic. Her 2020 article suggesting contraceptive autonomy as a novel family planning indicator even informed the 2021 Doctors Without Borders Contraceptive Guidelines toolkit!

In a new article published in Studies in Family Planning, Senderowicz and co-authors pilot a novel measure of contraceptive autonomy at two sites in Burkina Faso. “Measuring Contraceptive Autonomy at Two Sites in Burkina Faso: A First Attempt to Measure a Novel Family Planning Indicator” uses a cross-sectional, population-based survey of more than 3,900 reproductive-aged women to assess elements of the contraceptive autonomy evaluation tool:

“Rather than viewing the measurement approach assessed here as a final tool ready to be scaled up, we view this as an important step on a longer road toward a more rights-based and person-centered measurement agenda for the global family planning community. We caution that, even with considerable more development, some of the key elements of contraceptive autonomy may never be able to be measured well at the population level, since this survey approach necessarily limits our data to what our respondents know, and what they choose to share. This acknowledgment, however, should not be a deterrent to those seeking to address the vital need for new family planning indicators that measure people's own desires and trust them to be the experts on their own lives.” 

Read the whole study here!