Mum & Child

Eda not enough reason for infertility in couples —Experts

As the two women talked at the salon about infertility, it was obvious that the matter was one they were really worried about. Their talk was on eda, the sperm reflux or leakage after sexual intercourse and the soap her mother-in-law talked about that she said could cure it.

“I have been married for about two years and my mother-in-law says the problem may be because of eda. She said in the village, a Baba sells a special soap that can stop it and increase my chances of having a baby,” Mrs Anu Haruna said.

Mrs Haruna said she had tried to raise her legs while lying on her back to ensure there is no semen reflux and despite that she is still not pregnant.

Many women complain about sperm leakages or sperm pouring out of their vagina after sexual intercourse, attributing it to their infertility. Some take it as a spiritual problem. It is called EDA in Yoruba; also western medicine recognises it as sperm pour, sperm reflux or sperm leak.

Infertility is medically defined as the inability to achieve a pregnancy after a year or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. It causes great worry and sorrow for many couples in Africa, especially for the women.

In 2010, among women aged 20–44years that were exposed to unprotected sex, 1.9% was unable to conceive. Out of women who had had at least one live birth and were exposed to sex, 10.5% were unable to conceive again.

In Africa the prevalence rate of infertility may be as high as 20-30% in some areas, and vary from region to region even within the same country. Infertility causes great worry and sorrow for many couples in Africa, especially for the women.

Also, most times the burden of infertility lies squarely on the couple alone, with a greater burden on the woman.

In Nigeria, there are many misconceptions about infertility. Some believe that infertility is caused by eda, early circumcision and eating certain foods or vegetables like okra. Again, the myth that females holding their feet high after sexual intercourse and not going to the bathroom immediately after, can increase conception also abound.

In a reaction, Dr Olubukola Salam, consultant family physician at University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan in Oyo State, stated that eda which literally means “to pour” in English language is a common parlance, especially talked about when someone is facing infertility issue in South Western Nigeria. It is assumed to be the reason she is not getting pregnant.

She declared that there is always the possibility of some of the semen flowing back from the female reproductive organ after sexual intercourse, depending also on the volume of the ejaculation and where the man ejaculates during a sexual intercourse.

“The volume of men’s ejaculation varies; this is part of what we assess when doing semen analysis. Some men ejaculate a lot. Some will not even ejaculate anything. Also, some men ejaculate when fully inside the female reproductive organ while others do so after they have withdrawn their male organ. So, all these can determine whether there will be a reflux of semen or not,” Dr Salam added.

In a remark, Dr Olayinka Ogunbode, a consultant obstetrician and gynecologist at the UCH, Ibadan, stated that many women having infertility issues tend to think that it is because of eda, but studies have shown that in an ejaculate, there are millions of sperms but only one is needed to get pregnant.

Dr Ogunbode declared: “Once the sperms are fine, only one is needed to get pregnant. If we do tests, we will see that they are moving very fast and there are no abnormalities. That is a good sperm for fertilisation. Eda does not cause any infertility.

“But what we advise some women if they are worried about eda is that they can elevate their buttocks on the pillow and wait for a few minutes after sexual intercourse. This elevation of the vagina will not allow the sperm to flow out, just to give them some psychological relief.”

Dr Salam while corroborating that eda is not a reason for a woman not getting pregnant, added that causes of infertility could be due to both male and female factors

“Part of what can cause infertility is if the male ejaculation or semen is not of good quality.

“Even if it is of good quality, if the fallopian tubes of the woman are blocked, the sperm would not be able to swim up the tube to fertilise the egg of the woman when it is released from the ovaries. It is also possible that the sperm will get there and will not find any egg to fertilise.”

Infertility isn’t just a woman’s problem. Men can be infertile too. In fact, men and women are equally likely to have fertility problems. Experts say that about one-third of infertility cases can be attributed to female infertility while men’s problems account for another third of infertility cases.

The remaining third of cases may be caused by a combination of male and female infertility, or they may have no known cause.

Generally speaking, infertility in men is related to issues with effective production of sperm, sperm count, shape of the sperm and movement of the sperm, which includes both the wriggling motion of the sperm themselves and the transport of the sperm through the tubes of the male reproductive system.

Female infertility can be caused by a variety of factors that affect or interfere with the ovulation, when the mature egg is released from the ovary; fertilisation, which occurs when sperm meets the egg in the fallopian tube after travelling through the cervix and womb implantation, which occurs when a fertilised egg attaches to the lining of the womb where it can then grow and develop into a baby

But it is generally advised that men and women should plan to see a doctor after one year of trying to conceive. The type of treatment that will be recommended will depend on a variety of factors, including the cause of the infertility, age, overall health of the partners and how long the couple has been trying to conceive.

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