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Infertility: Young Women Advised Against Fibroid Surgery
By Ayodeji Fashikun, 12.05.2004
Lagos
As the frightening incidence of one out of every four Nigerian couple finding it difficult to get pregnant rises, young women have been advised against the IUCD contraceptive devise as well as those who have fibroids who are yet to have children have also been advised not to opt for surgical operation due to the after effects. These findings were part of a one-day interactive forum for professionals of allied backgrounds and clients, at the weekend in Lagos, organised by a Nigerian fertility clinic, The Bridge, while evaluating their processes and activities over the years within the confines of international standard of practise. A laboratory expert, Mr. Nwora Melie, whose exposition is titled: ISO-9001-2000 Quality Management System and the IVF Clinic, said, "we are desirous to bringing infertility management of international standards to the country. The first child following the treatment of a couple at the clinic was born in January 2000. However, over 300 women have conceived following treatment with the result consistently encouraging." He charged women who have not had children to avoid using the intra-uterine contraceptive devise (IUCD) as a form of contraception while recommending in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) for "couples who can’t achieve pregnancy over three years for whatever reason is the cause of infertility." Some other category of people he recommended the alternative processes to include "those whose abnormality is not defined, women with ovulation problems, men with either low sperm count or who have no sperm in their ejaculate or older women who require treatment with donated egg." Melie said, "women, especially those who are yet to have children, should not have fibroids or ovarian cysts operated upon just because they are there. Appropriate advice should be sought before consenting to the operation because up to 30% of women develop scar tissue following these operations that can cause damaged tubes." In his brief remarks, the Medical Director, Dr. Richardson Ajayi said, "there is need for us as a nation to have something to chase which is the quality of health care delivery available to citizens and residents of our country. To us here, quality management of our services is of high priority and watchword." Responding to questions, he remarked that, "IVF is cost prohibitive no doubt. We have clients who genuinely desire these services but cannot afford it yet there are no social insurance services that can help them out. These are part of the challenges we are facing in this specialist area of medical service. Even at that, IVF is still cheaper than a ‘tokunbo’ car." According to him, "there is an age-related decline in female fertility with women becoming less fertile with advancing years and the rate declines sharply after 3 years. Women should not leave planning for pregnancy too late." On the capacity of meeting the needs of Nigerians, he replied, "IVF treatment in Nigeria is underutilised. IVF treatment is about one quarter cheaper here than abroad. Here, there are no waiting list unlike abroad. People don’t believe it is possible here. We are presently making use of less than one third of our capacity." "We have capacity for 2,500 cycle in each of our Lagos and Port Harcourt facilities with high quality state of the art technology you can find in any other part of the World. These services are available for Nigerians. People who have made use of our services are our best testimonies," he said. In attendance were specialists from medical institutions of note, social workers, journalists, parents who have benefitted from he services, laboratory experts amongst others.
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