There is Need for Serious Regulation Around Fertility Management, Says Bridge Clinic MD 

Kingsley Aliamaka

 The Managing Director, Bridge Clinic Fertility Centre, Sunny Ekhalume, has appealed to the federal government on the need to implement a regulatory framework on the issue of fertility management in Nigeria in order to protect the patients.

 He urged the government on the need to invest more in healthcare delivery, not only fertility clinics, as part of efforts to strengthen the healthcare sector in the country.

Ekhalume disclosed this recently at the fertility work in commemoration of the world (In Vitro Fertilization) IVF Day celebration, to commemorate the birth of the first IVF baby. 

 He also stated that the world IVF Day is set also to remove the stigma around IVF, adding that the public perception is that IVF babies are not normal babies, “but I tell you that the first IVF baby in this clinic is about 25 years old now and they are somewhere abroad doing their masters excellently.” 

 He remarked that IVF babies are normal babies, adding that the objective of the facility is also to remove the stigma around IVF and IVF babies. 

 “When you see the cases of people that have their babies and they are sharing testimonies in their place of work or worship they don’t mention that they had their through IVF they don’t mention IVF. 

IVF is a miracle. It should be celebrated, so there is nothing wrong to mention that I had my babies through IVF and to thank God for that because to have your babies through IVF is a miracle. It is part of the things we are trying to do through this facility work.

 “There could be a male or female factor in infertility, so when we talk about infertility it is just like a church scenario where you have more women than men. But infertility can be due to the fault of either the man or woman, so these are the conversations we are trying to bring through this fertility work that we are having today.

 “A lot of factors can be responsible for infertility, some of them are genetic. Though I am not a medical doctor, I am the managing director for bridge clinic, so I am speaking from the perspective of somebody who has worked in a fertility clinic, but not as a clinician. 

So, it could be genetic one which means it could be a male factor such as the low sperm which is known as Oligospermia and Azoospermia which is a condition for describing no sperm at all in a man and this could be as a result of non properly treated infection or some other causes. 

 “There is a condition known as varicocele in men which is when there are too many veins running in the scrotum sack and so it makes the sperm cells very hot and then they are not viable to be able to result in conception. There are also some men who have undescended testicles so there are a lot of male factors.

 On the side of the female too, it may be hormonal imbalance, it may be issues of fibroids. There could also be issues as a result of abortion that was not properly done or some other causes that could be responsible for infertility in both men and women.”