Infertility Now on the Increase in Nigeria, Expert Says

Martins Ifijeh

The Clinical Director, Androcare Fertility Centre and Invitro Fertility Academy, Dr. Daramola Adeleke has disclosed that infertility is now on the increase in Nigeria, with only few fertility experts available to tackle the health concern.

Briefing journalists during a two-week training for medical practitioners interested in fertility treatment, held in Lagos recently, Adeleke said the only way to curb the high demand for fertility treatment was by empowering and training medical experts, which he said Androcare has been doing through its Invitro Fertility (IVF) Academy.

He said: “The IVF Academy is setup by Androcare. The idea is to empower doctors who are interested in reproductive medicine. It includes invitro fertilisation.

“In Nigeria, doctors usually travel to India and other countries for training on how to address infertility, and often times they don’t get the entire grasp. But here we provide the opportunity to get the entire knowledge.

“Most doctors do not have the skill to manage infertility, they just prescribe. But this training provides the needed advantage.”

While explaining that the training was aimed at stop medical tourism abroad by bringing infertility treatment proximally to the Nigerians, he said we have few doctors attending to infertility problems in Nigeria.

“Presently we don’t have a center in the university where they train doctors on the area. The highest we can do is seeing a gynecologist and today this academy is bridging such gap,” he said.

Adeleke urged the government to create a college for the training of doctors on infertility

The Program Director, Androcare, Dr. Bukunmi Kolade said the training will not only end medical tourism but will address early detection of fertility treatment.

“We have encouraged the doctors to bring their patients into our laboratories which will be part of the practicals,” he said.