A consultant obstetrician/ gynaecologist and chief executive officer (CEO) Nordica Fertility Centre, Dr. Abayomi Ajayi, has said that men contribute over 50 per cent to infertility problem in the country.
Dr Ajayi, who stated this while addressing journalists on the centre’s campaign for male factor infertility, in Abuja, said also that 12 percent of men who visit the clinic for fertility do not have sperm even though they have semen, adding that the male factor is the commonest reason for IVF.
He said, “Generally, men contribute more than 50 per cent to Infertility. In Nigeria, from the studies that we have done, we saw that 12 per cent of the men who come to the clinic do not have sperm at all. We have seen also that the commonest reason why people come to do IVF now is due to the male factor.”
Describing the 12 percent as an alarming proportion, the fertility expert however informed that there was an advanced technology which helps in identifying normal and abnormal sperm as well as choosing the sperm (Morphologically Selected Sperm).
He also said that it is much easier to solve the problem of the man than that of the woman, saying that for a woman, if the quality of the egg is bad, there is nothing that can be done about it.
“It depends on the wife because the egg is very important. When a woman is 40 years old, the quality of the egg is not very strong, it
is like putting two things that are not very good together. But if the wife was about 25 years and everything was good, the case could have been different.
That is why it is difficult to put a percentage to that problem,” he explained.
He emphasised that the campaign was to let the men know that there was a way out while urging on healthy lifestyle.