For 17 years, they were looking for the fruit of the womb. The couple went from pillar to post. If they had had a child nine months after their wedding, the child would probably be in a secondary school now. But for 17 years, Opeoluwa Mabadeje, 46, and her husband, Ayoola, 51, did not give up. On the last Christmas day, their sorrow ended when the wife gave birth to a baby boy, named Oluwaseyi.
The success did not come easily. Their journey to triumph began in 2007 when they started receiving treatment at the Medical Assisted Reproductive Technology Centre, Maryland, Lagos. After undergoing two unsuccessful in-vitro fertilisation sessions at the centre, the couple benefited from the free IVF of the Oladapo Ashiru Health Solutions Foundation. It was the free treatment that resulted in the birth of the baby.
According to the Chairperson of OARS Foundation, Prof. Oladapo Ashiru, the free treatment is one of the ways the group is bringing smiles to the faces of couples with problems of infertility.
Explaining the couple‘s case, Ashiru said, ”They had been married for 15 years when they came here in 2007. They had a pregnancy, which they delivered through the Caesarian section, but the baby died. A friend of theirs, who had been to our clinic and succeeded, recommended this place to them.”
Like all couples undergoing treatment in the centre, the husband and wife were thoroughly investigated, before their treatment commenced. Beginning from 2007, they went through two unsuccessful IVF sessions.
The professor gave other objectives of the foundation, which was established in January 2005. These include ”improving the reproductive health of Nigerians through reproductive health information; carrying out reproductive health management and cutting- edge research into reproductive health problems.”
Ashiru described reproductive health problems as enormous. He said, ”Infertility occurs in one out of five couples. That is the global statistics. In a country, like Nigeria where access to health is reduced, the figure can be higher.”
The professor, who together with Prof. Osato Giwa-Osagie, pioneered the first test-tube baby through IVF and embryos transfer in 1989, said that unlike Nigeria, in developed countries citizens were constantly educated on causes of infertility and how to prevent them.
He stated that the foundation had been providing information on infertility through its reproductive health magazine, which is published quarterly. ”Medical ART Centre is an avenue through which we can manage infertility. A section in the centre is dedicated to research into cutting -edge area in infertility,” he said.
According to Ashiru, it is not all cases of infertility that require IVF. He said that with reproductive education and simple technologies, some cases could be treated without going through IVF.
He noted that in spite of the high rate of infertility, the cost of IVF and other assisted reproductive technology was still high. Ashiru said that the cost of IVF depended on the type of infertility.
“The IVF, which involves invtra cytoplasmic sperm injection, will cost about N1m. Complicated issues like advanced maternal age and genetic disorders such as sickle cell or other chromosomal disorder will require pre-implantation genetic diagnosis which will enable us to select the embryos and know the ones to use. Embryos with abnormalities can be discarded, while healthy ones will be selected. Embryos selected through pre-implantation genetic diagnosis have a higher chance of success.”
He put the cost of the technique at between $4,000 and $6,000. “Here, we do it for $4,000,” he said. Ashiru said that while the success rate of other techniques was 18 per cent, that of PIGD was 40 per cent.
He further said, “The foundation also assists those who have gone through IVF on several occasions and cannot meet the cost again. There is a waiting list, which comprises people who have undergone IVF on a few occasions and did not succeed. Success rate in this technology is not 100 per cent at the first attempt. You may get 100 per cent after three or four attempts.”
Explaining the criteria for selecting couples for the free treatment, he stated, ”We choose those who have gone through three IVFs and did not succeed, but if we have more people who can afford it, we can give more couples free treatment. For example, if we treat 10 couples, the eleventh can enjoy free treatment.”
The professor stated that assisted reproductive technologies in Medical ART Centre were comparable with those of advanced countries.
Ashiru added that the centre placed emphasis on staff training, adding that its workers went for seminars in the United States, South Africa and India.
The clinical coordinator of the centre, Mrs. Biola Adewusi, who has been involved in assisted reproduction for 10 years, said that the problem of male infertility affected more men in Nigeria than in the US. These problems, according to her, include sperm factors such as absence of sperm and low sperm count.
Causes of male infertility, Adewusi explained, included environmental factors and diet. He said that men in an industrialised environment might produce lower sperm count than areas that were less industrialised.
She said that there should be regulations to curb environmental pollution. Advising Nigerians, Adewusi called for regular medical check-up, adding that they should not delay treatment of infertility.
