Over 250,000 Nigerian couples are
currently battling with infertility in the country, Senate Chairman,
Committee on Health, Senator LanreTejuosho has said.
He said the issue of childlessness was
often blamed on the women, even though reports suggest 50 per cent of
infertility problems were caused by men. “This perception does not
represent the reality, as the causes of infertility are often shared
between males and females,” he said.
Tejuosho, who spoke during the ‘Merck
More than a Mother’ initiative by Merck Pharmaceuticals in Lagos, said
one in four Nigerian couples have infertility challenge, adding that
this statistics needs some attention. “We need to focus on how we will
make the health institutions accessible to them for infertility
management.”
While decrying stigmatisation of women
due to fertility challenges, he called for increased advocacy so that
men will also know it is not an exclusive problem of the women. “When
men are also very enlightened on this, they will have the courage to
come out with their wives to seek treatment, so that treatment efforts
can be directed accordingly. Awareness and education can greatly reduce
the high number of infertility in the country,” he added.
Noting that the federal government was
putting all efforts on ground to ensure healthcare centres were
strengthened across the country, Tejuosho explained that within the next
two years, there would be 10,000 functioning health centres across
political wards of the country.
He also noted that the legislature will close ranks during health budgeting to make sure health centres have the capacity to attend to infertility issues.
He also noted that the legislature will close ranks during health budgeting to make sure health centres have the capacity to attend to infertility issues.
Lending his voice, the Chief Social
Officer, Merck Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Rasha Kelej, said the main reason
for the establishment of Merck was to empower women in Africa and also
to create awareness to change the mindset of people against infertility.
“We are here in Africa to empower women
to create awareness, information, health and change of mindset. It makes
me sad listening to stories on stigmatisation, especially when only the
women are blamed for infertility. Men do not want to admit the fact
that they can be the cause of infertility as well.
“We want to change all these. We know
changing culture and belief is very difficult, but with integration and
cooperation of the media, there can be awareness on infertility, which
would also help eliminate stigmatisation. Women are to be respected,”
she added.
While urging men to boldly cone out and
speak of their fertility problem, she urged the society to respect
women. “Even if they don’t have children, we should respect and
appreciate them and they will become reproductive members of the society
as well,” Kelej noted.
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