•Infertility
The rising case of infertility among couples in Nigeria can be curtailed, if endowed Nigerians come to their aid financially to enhance their access to Advanced Fertility Care (AFC) like In vitro Fertilisation (IVF), a lecturer of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G), University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Prof. Lukman Omokanye, has said.
The don, who is also the Coordinator and Technical Partner of MEDCLEV Multi Specialists Hospital, Tanke Ilorin, said yesterday, that orthodox solutions at a more advanced level have become the most dynamic solution to infertility problems the world over, reports The Guardian.
He, however, rued poverty among indigent sterile couples in Nigeria as the bane of IVF’s success, urging, therefore, the endowed ones to render financial assistance.
Omokanye spoke in Ilorin, Kwara State, at the launch of MEDCLEV Fertility Foundation, a non-governmental organisation conceived by the Management of the hospital as an important stop gap for indigent couples with infertility challenges.
He was alluding to the recent statistics by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that one out of seven couples in the world would suffer one form of infertility or another in their lives.
The expert added: “A perusal of statistics about Nigeria infertility percentages across its major ethnic nationalities will, no doubt, be surprising to non-clinicians among this audience. For instance, among the Nupe and Gwari, infertility rate is 10.5 per cent; it is 10 per cent among the Tiv, and 6.9 per cent among the Chaamba, all in the North Central Zone of Nigeria.
“Among the Igbo and other ethnic groups within the Eastern Zone, including Cross River State, the percentages and 16 and 19.1 respectively. In the case of South-Western Nigeria, infertility rate is reportedly 14 percent. In all, Nigeria’s infertility rate is estimated to be 20 to 30 percent of total married couples.”
The don, who disclosed how elusive the AFC procedures had been to the indigent infertile couples due to its huge costs, added that government’s health facilities, laden with bureaucratic systems, could also not bail them out of their predicaments.
