Experts express concern over high rate of infertility

A Medical expert with Medclev Medical Centre, Ilorin, Dr. Ibrahim Lawal has advised couples with challenges on conception in Africa to seek for early medical intervention rather than blaming such predicaments on witches and wizards. In a press conference yesterday in Ilorin, he said the recent prevalence of infertility in Nigeria especially among newly wedded couples has become a source of concerns to Obstetrics and Gynaecologists. According to him, he faulted the usual heaping of blames of delayed conceptions on women just as he explained some commonest reasons responsible for such ordeals. He said, “recent statistics in Nigeria have shown a surge in the numbers of those with the problems of conception. It is a challenge indeed but what is most worrisome is where the patients often run to for solutions. “We need to sensitize these people to the danger inherent in this practice. Multifarious reasons could be responsible for infertility but only medical assistants could be the safest and surest.” For the medical practitioner, Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), the main cause of tubal blockage, often cause infertility in 15% of women. Besides, he said PID in Africa occurred commonly after childbirth and abortion, with the same pathogens. He added that Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) could also cause male infertility by blockage of the sperm ducts or decreased sperm count. Mohammed while speaking on the IVF as a modern solution to varying degrees of infertility urged Nigerians to embrace it as every IVF children are not in any way inferior to those conceived without it. The doctor canvassed more of governmental supports for the IVF clinicians across its hospitals, noting that the section unlike many other medical units could only be effectively managed by “specially trained doctors and other medical personnel.” Kehinde Akinpelu, Ilorin