13042019 - KILLING FIELDS OF NORTH WEST:They killed my husband, our three children in my presence – Zamfara survivor

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 13, 2019—31
Medical milestone:
Bringing IVF to the streets
Two of a kind—young,
brilliant and
ambitious, Drs. Adeleke
Daramola and Charles
Oluwabukunmi Kolade
are bonded by a common
passion. As the Medical/Clinical
Director and Gynaecologist/Chief
Operating Officer, Androcare
Fertility Centre, Lagos,
respectively, Daramola and Kolade
have special interest in fertility
treatment. They assist couples
challenged by infertility to have
their own babies. They also teach
other doctors and healthcare
providers how to make babies in the
laboratory.
Their common agenda is to bring
IVF to the streets. Six years ago,
they started off Androcare as the
first and only fertility centre in
Akowonjo, a Lagos suburb, offering
tests based on achieving the cause
of the infertility for couples by
running advanced diagnostic tests.
“ We are bringing IVF to the
streets,” Daramola remarked during
an encounter. “Androcare is a centre
for those on the streets not only for
the rich. By this, what we mean is
that we do not want IVF to be only
for the rich. Everybody should have
access.
“We know IVF is an expensive
process and unaffordable for many
as a result. That is one of the
reasons we are here. We want to
help many people to find a way to
enable them achieve results they
desire,” he asserted.
Androcare runs a fertility academy
in the belief that it will enable
doctors that want to have training
on the field of fertility medicine can
benefit. Normally doctors interested
in this specialist field in Nigeria
travel abroad as there are no such
facilities in Nigeria.
“We are one of the pioneers of
training for healthcare providers
interested in fertility medicine, we
have things in place for them to be
trained.
“Averagely 10 percent of Nigerian
couples have issues with fertility
and we lack enough doctors to cater
for the problem, so we are helping
to train doctors as that would make
the work easier and enable
everyone to have access to fertility
treatment.
“We give room for doctors that are
skilled in these procedures but
have no centre to do their
treatment.”
“We are bringing fertility to the
streets because there are infertile
couples that wait for years for a
miracle to have a baby because they
cannot afford to pay for IVF. We do
not want it to be like that. It would
be nice for those without the money
to pay for IVF to be parents also.
“On the streets we make the cost of
IVF not to be scary for people, and
not to market to get more clients.
We are trying to offer something
that is cheap but also of quality
standard.
“We have the ideal standard
embryonic laboratory, this also
determines the success of the
treatment as a whole. We don’t try
to scare people away to achieve
conception, “ he argued.
Daramola asserted that setting up
a fertility centre is challenging. “It
requires financial power. Our
Centre is available for interested
doctors to utilise as we have stateof-the-art
facilities for them to have
their procedures done.”
The medics advise couples that are
having difficulty getting pregnant for
at least one year, that it is wise to carry
out some investigations on both
partners.
Daramola continued: “There was
this issue of unexplained infertility we
had to deal with in which the man
and wife were okay, but never achieved
conception. Thanks to the advent of
the procedure known as Sperm
Chromatin Assay Structure (SCSA),
we were able to help out.
“It tells us the DNA make-up of
sperm cells which means it is possible
for some men to have normal sperm
cells, yet due to the abnormal DNA
they carry, they are unable to fertilize
the eggs or they are able to fertilize
the eggs but the embryos come out in
a poor fashion.
“This procedure helps many
couples to know the next step to
take, whether to go straight for IVF
treatment or for Intra-cytoplasmic
Sperm Injection, ICSI, which is an
advanced treatment for low sperm
count and other problems with
sperms produced by the man himself
or donor sperm.
“This procedure has opened doors
and made couples smile. Knowledge
is power, so most men that feel that
just having normal sperm count is
enough should not just relax,”
Daramola noted.
“Our goal is to make things easy.
We do not want infertility to be a
stronghold in Nigeria. So there is
all round benefit for the couples and
medical professionals.”
Noting that prevention is better
and cheaper than cure, he observed
that most cases of infertility can be
prevented, but many people lack
such knowledge.
He said among the commonest
causes of infertility in Nigeria are
blocked fallopian tubes in women
and low sperm count in men.
“This problem of low sperm count
is increasing yearly, and the causes
are largely unknown. The issue of
blocked tubes arising from pelvic
infections that are not properly
treated is very common.
“So if the younger ladies can take
care of such things early enough,
and take preventive measures, they
should know of the implications of
blocked tubes. We have been trying to
go to schools to educate on fertility
health for youths.”
In their views, the medics explained
that low sperm count is caused by
varicoceles.
“Men have enlarged veins in their
scrotum which starts from childhood, and
if not early detected and corrected could
lead to zero sperm count in the future.
“Last year, Androcare in collaboration
with another NGO organized a seminar
for teenagers. For the males, we taught
them to do a self-testicular examination
and for the women, we encouraged
breast self-examination. The participants
were taught the common symptoms of
STIs so they are aware.”
Kolade pointed out a scenario: “For
instance, testicular mumps affect fertility
from childhood, this is why mothers
Dr Kolade(L) with Dr Daramola
should check their sons’ testicles when
bathing them. If the testes are not in their
normal position by the time a boy is 4
years old, he may be infertile for life.
“The problem must be fixed before he
attains age of 4, not even at 5 or at 6.
This and other abnormalities happen over
a period of time but can be corrected
when detected early.”
On the issue of blocked Fallopian tubes
that are commonly called toilet infection,
Kolade affirmed that medically, there is
nothing like toilet infection.
“We know it more as sexually
transmitted infections. Toilet infection is
a slang and there is no
diagnosis for it. It is
essentially utilised to
make the condition
acceptable to the layman.
“A woman can have
vaginal discharge that is
whitish or yellowish, with
or without odour. There
could be accompanying
pelvic pain, in the left
lower side of the
abdomen. There could
also be itching and
discomfort. These are
signs of infection and it is
important for ladies to
properly get treated when
they see such signs.
“Go for vaginal swab, do
microscopic culture and
consult a doctor to treat
the infection properly so
Testicular
mumps affect
fertility from
childhood, this is
why mothers
should check
their sons’
testicles when
bathing them
there is no recurrence. Maintain proper
hygiene, avoid STIs and obey the ABCs
of prevention of STIs, that is, A for
abstinence, B for be faithful and C for
utilising condoms if you cannot abstain,
Daramola advised.
Speaking further, Kolade said one of
the drivers of female infertility is pelvic
infection or infection after pregnancy.
“In this part of the world, pregnancy
termination is not legal and there is
tendency to do it in a clandestine
manner. So there is that aspect of
termination of pregnancy that is
predisposing pelvic infection.
“There are rampant cases of women
getting pregnant and having a baby
three months after marriage and then
not being able to get pregnant again
because of the process of the pregnancy,
so there is also that part of infection
through sex following previous
pregnancy, delivery or even a C-
section.
“If there is an infection, it could
make things complicated.
Infection generally is a big
problem for fertility for men and
women.
“If there is abnormal DNA, we
put the man involved on drugs
to see if there could be some form
of repair, but there is no
particular drug that treats low
spem count. However, ICSI
helps.”
On whether there are factors in
the environment that influence
declining fertility rates in
Nigeria, Kolade stated: “What I
can say is that in 2003, myself
and a few colleagues did a study,
we compared sperm parameters
in a particular IVF unit for 1,000
people and compared with sperm
parameters for 1,000 people in
2013 and we discovered that the
parameters were worse. The sperm
counts were worse, the motility worse,
morphorlogy worse and fertilisation
rates worse.
“The only thing different apart from
climatic change is that our lifestyle is
getting Westernised. There’s more of
polished food and canned food being
consumed. Even people in the Western
world are experiencing the same thing.”
Continuing, Kolade stated: “Recent
activity showed us that 1 out of 4 people
between 25 and 40 years old, has
abnormal sperm parameters
in Europe. And that’s why
they are trying to talk about
organic meals now. They
have noticed because our
lifestyle is getting
westernized, it is gradually
affecting our fertility,” he
argued.
Essentially, Androcare has
a plan to help couples that
have undergone failed IVF
cycles but want to try again.
They give discounts in such
cases saying failures help to
attain success and also
encourage preventive
means.
The medics observed that
some people really don’t
need to do IVF if they can
do the right thing and can
prevent themselves from
infection.