Gilda Sedgh, Senior Research Associate

Gilda Sedgh returned to the Guttmacher Institute in September 2004 as a Senior Research Associate after an eight year absence in which she pursued an advanced degree and worked on other international research projects relating to sexual and reproductive health. She has conducted research identifying levels, trends and disparities in unmet need for contraception in developing countries and women’s reasons for nonuse; estimating the levels and trends in the incidence of abortion worldwide, and examining women’s experience of unintended pregnancy and abortion in Nigeria. She is currently engaged in studying unsafe abortion in Burkina Faso and documenting unsafe abortion levels and patterns in Indonesia. Dr. Sedgh’s other areas of published research include the effects of HIV infection on fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa and the effects of breastfeeding on maternal HIV disease progression. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree in population and international health and a ScD in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Recent publications include:

Bankole A, Sedgh G, BA Oye-Adeniran, IF Adewole, R. Hussain and S. Singh, Abortion seeking behaviour among Nigerian women, Journal of Biosocial Science, 2008, 40: 247-268.

Sedgh G, Henshaw SK, Singh S, Aahman E and Shah IH, Induced abortion: rates and trends worldwide, Lancet, 2007, 370(9595):1338–1345.

Sedgh G, Henshaw SK, Singh S, Bankole A and Drescher J, Legal abortion worldwide: Incidence and recent trends, International Family Planning Perspectives, 2007, 33(3):106-116.

Sedgh G, Hussain R, Bankole A and Singh S, Women with an unmet need for contraception in developing countries and their reasons for not using a method, Occasional Report, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2007, No. 37.

Sedgh G, Bankole A, Adewole IF, Oye-Adeniran BA, Singh S and Hussain R, Unwanted Pregnancy and Associated Factors Among Nigerian Women, International Family Planning Perspectives, 2006, 32(4):175–184.

Sedgh G, Larsen U, Spiegelman D, Msamanga G and Fawzi WW, HIV-1 infection and fertility in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, African Journal of Reproductive Health, 2006, 10(3):41–52.

Bankole A, Oye-Adeniran BA, Singh S, Adewole IF, Wulf D, Sedgh G and Hussain R, Unwanted Pregnancy and Abortion in Nigeria: Causes and Consequences, New York: The Guttmacher Institute, 2006.

Sedgh G, Jackson E and Ibrahim B, Toward the abandonment of female genital cutting: advancing research, communication and collaboration, Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2005, 7(5):425–427.

Sedgh G, Larsen U, Spiegelman D, Msamanga G and Fawzi WW, HIV-1 disease progression and fertility in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 2005, 39(4):439–445.

Sedgh G, Spiegelman D, Larsen U, Msamanga G and Fawzi WW, Breastfeeding and maternal HIV-1 disease progression and mortality, AIDS, 2004, 18(7):1043–1049.

Sedgh G, Herrera MG, Nestel P, el Amin A and Fawzi WW, Dietary vitamin A intake and nondietary factors are associated with reversal of stunting in children, Journal of Nutrition, 2000, 130(10):2520–2526.

Amin S and Sedgh G, Incentive Schemes for School Attendance in Rural Bangladesh, Working Paper, New York: Population Council, 1998, No. 106

Singh S and Sedgh G, The relationship of abortion to trends in contraception and fertility in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, International Family Planning Perspectives, 1997, 23(1):4–14..