By Joseph Erunke, ABUJA

In its continuous efforts to assuage the pains of women going through fertility challenges in Nigeria, Alliance Hospital and Services has established a world-class Invitro-fertilization Centre, IVF in Abuja.

Speaking on Wednesday, at the event where the hospital ‘s newly purchased 64-slice revolution maxima CT was commissioned,the medical director,
Dr Christopher Otabor, lamented the surge in number of persons having fertility challenges.

He, however, attributed one of the causes to social issues which he said lead most women to pursue professional careers, thus resulting in delayed marriages.

According to Dr Atabor, in every woman who is 35 years and above, the ability for her to produce reduces drastically as compared to if she were younger.

Dr Otabor stated that this has given rise to persons seeking InVitro fertilization, IVF.

Hear him:”With the advancement of contemporary Nigerian society and women empowerment in
terms of career pursuit, many of our women now get into their thirties before settling
down in marriage. Science has shown that reproductive efficiency reduces with female age. A good number of the women getting married and desiring to be pregnant will require some form of assistance for them to achieve that desire.

“I give credit to some of the pioneers of IVF services in Nigeria and Abuja particularly. Even though we now have a good number of centres now offering IVF services, yet the demand, still outweighs the supply. Alliance Hospital will play its own part in contributing to the solution of infertility through our IVF centre.”

The newly established facility,he explained,
was capable of carrying out diagnosis and treatment of complex medical conditions.

The medical doctor added that couples going through fertility challenges from the month of April now have a solution as the two commissioned projects which he said cost over half a billion Naira represents a significant milestone in the quest to reverse the tide of medical tourism from Nigeria.

He said “If foreigners can travel down to alliance hospital for their kidney transplant, it is time for Nigeria to take us seriously”.

The doctor also corrected the notion where when a couple is facing infertility challenges, the woman is singled out to be the fault.

He said,When there’s infertility the couple need to be evaluated, it could be from the woman and it could be from the man or it could be a combination of both.

“Statistically, it is said that one third of all cases of infertility is the problem with the woman and one third is the problem with the man and the other one third is a combination of the two of them.

“Please take note that I didn’t say the fault because we are not to give blame to anybody, it is not a matter of blame, it’s a matter of the source of the inability to conceive.

” The fact that a woman is not able to conceive and the problem is with her does not mean that she’s at fault. It may just be the way she’s wired, it may be hormonal problem and she doesn’t have anything to do with it. It is not within her control”.

He explained that the machines will definitely make life easier for clinicians as it will solve many of the diagnostic dilemmas
previously encountered in the process of making diagnosis and treatment of complex medical conditions as well as be a great support for women empowerment.

He disclosed that in the past ten years, healthcare services in Nigeria have experienced tremendous
growth and sophistication, especially from the angle of the private sector, with Abuja
taking the lead as a preferred destination for medical treatment by patients across
Nigeria and beyond.

“In the past three years, Alliance Hospital has done 75 kidney transplant surgeries with 96% success rate. A number of our kidney transplant patients flew in from outside Nigeria,”he said.

In his welcome address, the Deputy Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. R. Adeyemi said the centre envisioned a Nigeria where medical care would be of the highest standard and world-class.

Apart from helping to reduce medical tourism, Adeyemi noted further that with the medical advancement, infertility which has continued to plague women and men in the reproductive age has been defeated.