Practitioners seek FG’s support over fertility treatment

A group of gynaecologists has appealed for the Federal Government’s support over fertility treatments in the country.

The health practitioners made the appeal in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital at a training on fertility treatment procedure called Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)

The training which was facilitated by the Nordica Fertility Centre, in collaboration with the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) was held on Saturday.

According to Dr Olayinka Ogunbode, a gynaecologist with University College Hospital, Ibadan and secretary of SOGON, the government should partner with fertility centres in the country to make treatments affordable to the people.

“The availability of IVF centres in Nigeria is encouraging, but many of these centres are too costly to set up. They take loans to set up many of these centres.  So I think if the government could partner these centres in order to make fertility treatments affordable and accessible to the people.

He also appealed to the government to put infertility treatment on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), noting that this would make treatment more affordable for Nigerians.

Dr Ogunbode tasked the government to help poor people with fertility issues access treatment by revamping hospitals and training health practitioners.

“As a matter of necessity, the government should help the average Nigerian access fertility treatments by focusing on equipping hospitals and constantly training health practitioners to be able to diagnose and treat people with fertility cases.”

In her own contribution, Dr Ifeoluwa Oyetunji, a gynaecologist and fertility specialist with the Nordica Fertility Centre, described intrauterine insemination as the most rudimentary form of assisted conception, noting however, that it can be quite expensive, especially for the average Nigerian.

She said, “for fertility treatments in Nigeria generally, there’s room for improvement compared to other advanced countries of the world.  We need lots of awareness because the populace themselves need to know what is available.

“Apart from knowing what is available, they also need to know what is their own role because they need to know what they need to do and where to get the services. Even the practitioners need to be ready to make available what they need. It’s not widely available in Nigeria because it’s pretty expensive, and it’s not easy setting up the facilities but, we have facilities in Nigeria that we are now telling our people that there’s really no need to go abroad for fertility treatments.”

She added that couples seeking children of their own should not lose hope as there are centres in the country making giant strides in infertility treatments and that people from other countries were coming to the country to access care.