‘Lifestyle changes can prevent infertility’

The Managing Director of Bridge Clinic, Sunny Ekhalume, has emphasised the importance of removing the stigma surrounding In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and fertility treatments in the country.

Speaking at a fertility walk to commemorate World IVF Day in Lagos, Ekhalume noted that it was important to educate people about the normalcy of IVF babies and the various factors contributing to infertility, including male and female factors.

He stressed the importance for couples to test their fertility status before marriage or early in their relationship and urged couples to seek fertility specialist help after a year of marriage.

Ekhalume noted that infertility can be caused by genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors, and that prevention is possible through healthy living, exercise, and a balanced diet.

The Managing Director emphasised the need for government regulation in fertility management, citing the lack of regulation in the country. Additionally, Ekhalume noted the option of surrogacy for women who cannot carry a pregnancy due to medical reasons, highlighting that the clinic was one of the first to achieve birth through surrogacy in Nigeria.

He said: “A lot of factors can be responsible for infertility. Some of them are genetic, while others are male factors, like low sperm, or Azoospermia, which is no sperm at all in the man. This could be a result of a non-properly treated infection or some other causes.

“There is what you call varicocele in men, which is when there are too many veins running in the scrotum sack, and so it makes the sperm cells hot, and then they are not viable to be able to result in conception. And then some men have undescended testicles.

“On the female, the problem may be hormonal imbalance, it may be issues of fibroids, they can also be issued as a result of abortion that was not properly done, or some other causes that could be responsible for infertility in both men and women.”