In a bid to enlighten the public and reduce the growing rate of infertility in Nigeria, the Meet Surrogate Mother Agency has urged couples to explore Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) such as In-vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogacy.

Speaking at a media parley to educate the press on the positive impacts of IVF and surrogacy, the Founder, Meet Surrogate Mother Agency, Olaronke Thaddeus, said the options will reduce the wait time that is often associated with trying to have a baby and outweigh the negative views and religious restrictions.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 17.5 per cent of the adult population meaning roughly one in six people worldwide experience infertility, showing the urgent need to increase access to affordable, high-quality fertility care for those in need.

The WHO defined infertility as a disease of the male or female reproductive system, defined by the failure to achieve a pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. It can cause significant distress, stigma, and financial hardship, affecting people’s mental and psychosocial well-being.

Thaddeus explained that for a lot of women suffering from infertility, IVF could be what would solve their fertility problem. She disclosed that lots of women, who have issues with their fallopian tubes (when their two tubes are blocked), can only get pregnant through IVF.

She noted that IVF is the only procedure that would bypass the fallopian tube into the womb for implantation to take place if the couple can provide the eggs and sperm for the generation of embryos. “We count the number of women with fallopian tube blockage, the number is alarming and that would tell you that a lot of women truly need IVF,” she said.

Enumerating other categories of women who can benefit from IVF and surrogacy, Thaddeus mentioned women who do not have good wombs or developed issues due to one reason or another. She said it could be a result of a series of surgeries done in the past like fibroid surgeries leading to difficulty getting pregnant.

The group spoke on the need to close that gap through a conference, which will educate women on various options available to solve their infertility issues while teaching them not to shy away from the topic but to speak up regardless of societal beliefs, tradition, and religious views.

The fertility counselor also announced that the agency during the conference would select 15 lucky couples who would receive free IVF to encourage more couples about the benefit of exploring fertility options.

Thaddeus said. “A lot of women want children that they are genetically and biologically related to, and surrogacy avails them the option of using their eggs and their spouse’s sperm to generate embryos that would be transferred into the surrogate mother. The surrogate is helping the couple carry the baby and this option would not change the feature of the baby nor would the baby share any genetic link with the carriers.”

“Another set of women who need surrogacy are women suffering from medical issues that pregnancy could complicate like women with kidney-related issues, cancers and these are issues that when they get pregnant, can worsen their medical conditions and so they need to opt for surrogacy.

“Most cancer patients before starting chemotherapy retrieve their eggs so that they can use these eggs later. Others who can opt for surrogacy are women who have had a series of fibroid surgeries. Sometimes, when a woman undergoes fibroid surgeries, it has a way of creating scars on the lining of the uterus, which could lead to difficulty getting pregnant.”

Speaking about surrogacy as an option for older women, Thaddeus explained that in Lagos State, the ART law says that women from 52 and above should not receive IVF and so surrogacy can be a good option for them.

The counselor also spoke about compensation and the issues concerning the exploitation of young girls who volunteer to donate their eggs.

She said, “In other parts of the world, egg donation is one of the options in existence and it is so because they have realised that there is a fundamental problem with a lot of people regarding their reproductive health.”

The counselor then advised men to keep healthy lifestyles because infertility in men is also escalating while advising women to get evaluated by a gynecologist and find out the level of their egg reserve to have them frozen to be used later in a case where the results show that the reserve is small.