About five to ten per cent of couples trying to conceive are diagnosed with unexplained infertility,Dr Frank Awuah,a fertility expert at the King David Fertility center has stated.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghanaian Times, Dr Awuah stated that unexplained infertility is undoubtedly a frustrating diagnosis where nothing specific is found to keep couples especially women from getting pregnant.
That he said, was the more reason why there was the need to raise awareness on infertility and advise people not to stigmatise people with such challenges.
He explained infertility as the inability of couples to achieve pregnancy after a year of unprotected intercourse adding that infertillity in developed countries were caused by factors including endometriosis, anovualation from polycystic ovarian disease, premature ovarian failure(early menopause), cervical and endometrial factors.
He questioned why women were normally stereotyped when it came to issues of infertility, adding that “ Fertility was a shared responsibility as it takes a man and a woman to conceive”.
Giving some reasons why women were normally stigmatised and sterotyped he mentioned poor knowledge of fertility issues, poor management and financial problems and unfavorable health pyramid as some of the major factors contributing to that.
In his outfit he said to determine the cause of infertility ,we perform several tests on both partner. In men, we look at sperm count and characteristics, including motility and shape, to determine the likelihood of those sperm to fertise an egg.
In women ,we evaluate ovarian function, monitor for proper ovulation, perform a tubal and uterine evaluation and check various hormone levels.
Dr Awuah said , those tests help to find the actual cause of delay in pregnancy of couples, “with no apparent form of infertility, this leaves us with the diagnosis of unexplained infertilility”.
“Normally, patients with unexplained infertlity look good on paper, but in practice, things are not working out as they should. Though categorised as “ unexplained” there might be a root cause of the problem, but can not be identified as at the time” .
The ferility expert said what many couples do not realise was that a number of things have to happen at a time in order to get pregnant, and a misfunction anywhere in the process can cause failure to conceive.
He noted that even for fertile couples, the chance of getting pregnant in a month was only between 18 and 20 per cent.
He outlined certain lifestyle changes and home approaches such as eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and quitting smoking and excessive drinking as pragmatic measures to achieve pregnancy.
BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAH FOLLEY
