‘When a woman should begin to worry about infertility’

What will you say causes infertility? Well, there are many causes of infertility but we can look at them under four broad categories-male, female; combined and unexplained. Male: when the man is the cause of the infertility. Female, when the woman is the cause of it. Combined; when the two of them are the cause […]

What will you say causes infertility?

Well, there are many causes of infertility but we can look at them under four broad categories-male, female; combined and unexplained. Male: when the man is the cause of the infertility. Female, when the woman is the cause of it. Combined; when the two of them are the cause and unexplained when  common investigations cannot find reasons for the cause of infertility. This occurred only in about 10% of couples, but can as well be treated. When we say its unexplained it does not mean it cannot be treated.

When should couples be worried for not having a child after marriage?

When we talk about infertility there no way we will not talk about age, particularly of a woman. When a woman is below the age of 35 years, that is when she is at the peak of fertility she should be concerned. At the time when she is at the peak of her reproduction, if she does not get pregnant in one year, that is the time she should be worried that there might be a problem. When she is over 35 and she is not pregnant, we need to start looking for why the couple is not able to have a child because we know that fertility is age related, especially for the woman and the ability to have a child decreases with age. Before the age problem becomes pronounced we should try as much as we can to do what we can do.

Are there any other infertility related problems that cannot be treated here in Nigeria?

Well, if anybody now decides to go abroad for treatment of infertility I think it is by choice not because the facilities are not here. I can tell you that we can tackle many things that have to do with infertility. Apart from IVF, we do other surgery related treatments. We can remove fibroid in a woman without opening her up.  Like I said if anybody decides to go abroad it is by choice or maybe such person does not know this kind of facilities are now available in Nigeria.

How long have you been in this and what is the experience like?

We have been in this for about 10 years now and the experience has been very interesting. Except for the challenges posed by PHCN’s inability to generate constant power supply which our facilities here needed to function, in all it has been so amazing. What we thought was impossible in fifteen years has almost become a routine in Nigeria. The feat we have achieved in areas of infertility has shown that we can achieve same in other areas that have not been fully explored in this country. I’m looking at us being able to do heart transplant and others here in Nigeria so that there will be no need for people to travel out of the country for these treatments any more.

How many circles does a woman require to get pregnant in IVF?

It’s one circle but not every woman will get pregnant in one circle. We have to do up to two or three circles before some of them could get pregnant. Only about thirty to forty percent of them gets pregnant in one circle. This means many other people will have to do more than two or three circles to get pregnant. These are age related, the younger they are the better chance they stand to get pregnant in one circle. What we do is to prepare ten in them for three circles and if they succeed the first time fine. When they hear IVF their hopes are raised but when it fails they are shattered so, that is why we normally prepare them for three circles, if they don’t get pregnant in the first circle they may get in two or three circles. It’s not the money issue now that is involved but the psychological aspect of it. We hope that patient should just get pregnant in one circle but realistically, not every can succeed with  less two or three circles.

There are speculations that IVF babies are prone to certain ailments. What is your reaction to this?

It’s just like they say in computer, garbage in garbage out. It’s the raw material used that determined the quality of the baby.  With IVF now, it’s possible for older people to  get pregnant but there are certain things you might notice but nobody has proved that it’s the procedure that is responsible for that. The questions that need to be answered are: What is the age of the father but not the procedure. The procedure does not affect the baby but if we are talking about the side effects of IVF the mother is actually what we should watch out for because there is a particular problem called hyper –stimulation which is what we are watching out for because it’s the reason why people die. But now it’s becoming very uncommon. There are many protocols now that can eliminate hyper-stimulation. Another side effect is that you can have more than one baby at a go. Sometimes ago, a woman had five babies it was wonderful but might be a problem to the health of the mothers because of their age.

Is there any known side effect of IVF babies?

None. Before you can say it’s the procedure that is responsible for a particular noticeable ailment in IVF babies, you have to look at the population and the parents not to just conclude that it was the procedure.

How expensive is IVF?

Its affordable. I tell people if they can afford a Tokunbo car they can do IVF. Of course, it varies from one clinic to another. But if you can buy a new car you can do IVF over and over again. I will say it’s not very cheap but quite affordable, it’s not expensive. If expenses we incur on power generation to run our facilities because of the inefficient power supply from PHCN can come down, I tell you our price will also come down. IVF is an international thing, almost everything we need are brought in from abroad even the water we use for cleaning our things here is brought in from UK and other things from Germany for us to achieve the desired quality results.  If you don’t do quality control on many of these things it may affect the results. For instance, we may be doing five circles to get one pregnancy this is bad and it will also affect our expenses too. Whatever you get here is what you get in other parts of developed Europe.

What is the assurance that a woman will get pregnant under this process?

The chances are there but what we cannot guarantee is the number of circles she will undergo before getting pregnant. Some may get pregnant in one circle while some may undergo two to three circles. Sometimes those you think will go for two or three circles get pregnant in one circle and those you think will get pregnant in one circle at times undergo two to three circles before they get pregnant.

How do you prepare them for IVF

We try first to identify what their problem is. Some may require surgery before we can begin the IVF. If there is the need for us to remove fibroid we do it at times without necessarily opening her up, we can remove it through her Virginia. We can remove anything within the cavity of the uterus. We can as well remove the fluid that may not allow a woman get pregnant from their fallopian tubes. Some of them like I said might need to do a few things related to STD, HIV and others before they go for IVF because we are going to bring another life out of them so we need some precautions to prevent the baby from being infected from any of these. The couple will also have to agree on the type of IVF they want before we begin with the process.