Combating Infertility the natural way

Natural family planning is not expensive but highly effective way for couples to achieve pregnancy without artificial fertility treatments like In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). In this report by Sade Oguntola, experts say that it can help 90 percent of infertile couples achieve conception.

When Ade Adamu, a bank secretary, and Amina, a primary school teacher got married in 1997, they had the usual dreams of a new family: home, happiness and children of their own.

After several years without natural conception, they tried many hospitals, including herbalists. After several years without natural conception, they opted to try assisted reproductive technology through In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and succeeded in conceiving twin boys.

Ade and Amina’s story is not an uncommon one. Many homes are going through the agony of childlessness with the problem of infertility fast becoming a plague in the country.

It is estimated that almost 25 per cent of couples suffer from infertility in Nigeria. They suffer in silence also from pressures to have children from society and extended family members.

But over the years, experts have found Naprotechnology a modern natural procreative method that effectively treats infertility and promotes family health. In fact, it is an effective alternative to IVF.

“It is two times more successful than IVF in assisting infertile couples. It appears it is the solution to failed IVF in developed countries like Ireland and USA,” said Dr Henrietta Williams, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Fertility Care Services, Victoria, Island, Lagos.

It was at a symposium by Guild of Catholic Physicians, St Luke Church, University College Hospital, Ibadan and The Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan. It was entitled “Naprotechnology: The Modern Natural Procreative Science of Fertility Care and Family Health.”

According to Dr Williams, naprotechnology is so developed now that it is used for practically all things in gynaecology, including premenstrual syndrome, repetitive miscarriages, polycystic ovarian disease, menstrual cramps and natural procreation regulation.

“Particularly, I use it for treatment of infertility and miscarriages. It is purely medical science and it is based on the ovulation cycle. That cycle is responsible for production of hormones in cyclical fashion. When the oestrogen level is high, there is  mucus discharge from the vaginal, and that is what we ask the women to monitor in their body,” she said.

Naprotechnology uses the Creighton Model fertilityCare system (CrMS) to allow a woman to monitor easily and objectively several different biological markers which are essential to understanding a woman’s health and fertility.

The CrMS biomarkers are generally familiar to women and include such things as the menstrual flow and its variations, the vaginal mucus or discharge and dry days. These are recorded by the woman in a standardised and objective process called NaProtracking.

In about 15 per cent of all women with regular menstrual cycles and infertility, no mucus is observed during their entire cycle. This is called a dry cycle.

The woman makes the observations with every routine bathroom visit. No special toilet trips or gadgets are needed. She simply collects the information as she wipes herself with flat toilet tissue (front to back). It is done in seconds.

Since the CrMS biomarkers reflect various hormone events on the menstrual and fertility cycles, monitoring the biomarkers indicate times of fertility and infertility and telegraphs abnormalities in a woman’s health.

Any abnormality picked in the chart is treated. “This is a pointer to the fact that something is wrong somewhere. If this is not corrected, the person will remain infertile,” Dr Williams said.

In some cases, there might be the need for a diet change. According to her, “we have a fertility diet, one that includes less red meat, no wheat, no added sugar, and more of fruits and vegetables. This is all about improving her quality of eggs.”

A lot of infertility cases are due to environmental toxins. These toxins from different sources, including sachets for water and plastics, make egg age and they also affect the sperm quality.

Remarkably, she said through naprotechnology, unblocking fallopian tubes is effectively done to ensure natural conception just as other problems of conception like irregular or abnormal bleeding, hormonal abnormalities and postpartum depression.

Surgical naprotechnology focuses on the reconstruction of the womb, fallopian tubes and ovaries in a way that avoids pelvic adhesive disease. This is considered a “near-adhesion free” form of surgery.

However, she said charting of menstrual and fertile cycles by the larger population can ensure early detection of the sub-fertile population even right from puberty.

Dr Francis Achebe, a family physician and director, St Margaret NaPro Fertility Care Centre, Lokoja, Kogi State, said fallopian tube adhesion was a big challenge to fertility, adding “with proper charting of the woman’s menstrual and fertile cycles, the biomarkers will tell what exactly is happening.

He declared: “Infertility can be a symptom of diseases, such as endometriosis, polycystic ovarian disease, lack of ovulation, and tubal occlusion, which should be treated.

“Any woman can chart her menstrual and fertile cycles. They have been seeing those biomarkers in their body; they just do not know what they are or mean.”

He, however, said trained health educators can teach women to accurately chart their menstrual and fertile cycles; and based on that experts in naprotechnology can use the information from this chart to diagnose and treat appropriately many gynaecological problems as well as counsel on even when it can be used in avoiding pregnancy.

Such abnormalities like reduced vaginal discharge, unusual bleeding/spotting patterns and suboptimal hormonal surges are contributory factors to infertility in some cases. They are treated to ‘normalise’ reproductive potential as much as possible and improve the body’s environment for natural conception.

Nonetheless, he stated that based on naprotechnology, the inability of a couple to achieve pregnancy in seven months rather than 12 months of having sex on a woman’s fertile days could be termed infertility.

He also warned against use of pain killers in women with painful menses, saying its use this way over time can reduce their level of fertility.

“We must know the exact cause of the painful menses. For instance, it could be fibroid or endometrial polyps. Removing it will stop the pain,” Dr Achebe said.

The family physician also added that from his experience in management of infertility by this natural method, the technology takes into consideration a nutrition and a holistic approach to the woman’s health to ensure pregnancy.

He added, “fresh palm nuts are good in boosting fertility in women.”

Also, exchange of saliva, say through kissing, he said, has also been discovered to boost sperm count in husbands of women who were initially having problems conceiving, but who later became pregnant through naprotechnology.