The Chief Executive Officer of Nordica Fertility Centre, Dr Abayomi Ajayi, has said that it is wrong to assume fibroid is solely responsible for infertility, especially as a lot of women with fibroid get pregnant. Ajayi stated this at an awareness programme in Lagos for fibroid patients organised by the Support Association for Fibroid Awareness (SAFA) in partnership with Fibroid Care Centre. After a presentation on fibroid that included treating fibroid with High Intensity Focused Ultrasound delivered by Dr. Tope Olowogbayi, the participants shared their experiences and asked questions. But commenting, Ajayi stated that though fibroid and infertility are associated, but they are not causal in nature.

He said: “So, it is only about two to three per cent of infertility that is due to fibroid. And occurrence of fibroid and infertility is more than two to three per cent because of other reasons. Thus, it is wrong when people think that fibroid is what is not making them to get pregnant because a lot of people with fibroid get pregnant.

“The thing is that when you have infertility and fibroid, please do a wholesome assessment of the infertility, because there might be other reasons so that you do not just hang on and after treating the fibroid, then you realize that there are other reasons for the infertility. For example, may be, there is a male factor to the infertility, if it is something that can be treated, you then know and take the time to treat them concurrently.”

Ajayi noted that some women who after treating fibroid later get to know that Fibroid is not the reason they cannot conceive.

“For instance, if you are treating your fibroid and you know there is a male factor already, immediately you finish treating your fibroid, you go into In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) straight, so that you do not loose time.

“Infertility is a race against time. For the same woman, you are better off this year than next year because of the quality of eggs. So, we always want to maximize time when it comes to infertility.”

The Manager, SAFA, Wemimo Adewuni, said that the physical awareness programme was organised by SAFA because fibroid unfortunately is endemic among black people, and a lot of Nigerian women have fibroid.

“SAFA is a support association where these women can be together with a doctor, get peer encouragement so that if someone has a question or issue there are people who can relate with it.”

She disclosed that the seminar was the group’s first physical meeting to bring together women who had been connected online before now to speak to a doctor to explain to them what is going on in their body.

“We partnered with the Fibroid Care Centre, who provided the doctor that explained to the women as well as provide free screening for three women and one free High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatment.”