Practitioners dismiss concerns over IVF babies, sale of gametes
TOP practitioners of In Vitro Fertilisation ( IVF)/ Assisted Reproductive Technique ( ART) in Nigeria have dismissed studies that babies born through IVF are more susceptible to cancer, infertility and other degenerative diseases.
They also dismissed a report published, last week, that suggests, to survive the harsh economy, Nigerian youths have resorted to selling their male and female gametes ( sperms and eggs) to fertility centres.
President, Association for Reproductive and Family Health ( ARFH) and consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital ( UPTH), Rivers State, Dr. Preye Fiebai, and joint pioneer of IVF in Nigeria/ Medical Director, Medical ART Centre ( MART) Maryland, Ikeja, Lagos, Prof. Oladapo Ashiru, said the reports are ‘ absolutely false’.
They said several studies have shown that IVF babies are not at increased risk of health disorders compared to those born naturally. They said the evidence is still evolving, as ART has been for less than 50 years. The first IVF baby is just 40+ years old. They said there are many confounders for cancer, infertility etc. and these are still being studied, and there’s no overwhelming evidence for this at the moment.
The fertility experts said the author is obviously ignorant of the processes involved in retrieving oocytes ( eggs) from a human female and the challenges with handling the oocytes outside the body.
“Another person is talking about harvesting sperm. Laughable. Sperm is ejaculated and under normal circumstances no assistance is needed for that. By the time you need to assist someone to produce sperm, he is not a suitable donor. Some men doing their own treatment have challenges with sperm production and we even have to operate to get sperm from them.
“As far as I am concerned the story is not anything to write home about,” Fiebai said.
In vitro fertilisation ( IVF) is one of several techniques available to help people with fertility problems have a baby. During IVF, an egg is removed from the woman’s ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory. The fertilised egg, called an embryo, is then returned to the woman’s womb to grow and develop.
According to the report, investigation showed that students of higher institutions formed the largest percentage of the donors of their reproductive cells, and received between N100,000 and N250,000 per donation.
The University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital ( UITH), Kwara State, stands out among few hospitals providing the procedures. There are other two notable ones at Tanke Area, near Judges Quarters and the other at Adewole Estate.
A medical doctor in one of the facilities, however, said not in all cases would they require donations from third parties to boost the fertility of their patients.
While dispelling the rumour of such donations, a clinician with UITH, under condition of anonymity, simply defined the process as the joining of a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm in a laboratory dish.
Some students, who spoke with a reporter on the issue in Ilorin, said the development boosted their financial capabilities because, persons of their age bracket are seen as “hot cakes” for the donations due to their apparent age advantages and huge chances of fertility above older persons.
A male student in one of the higher institutions in the town, under condition of anonymity, said: “They have our phone numbers and there is a contact person, who will call us each time there is a need.
“We are not paid through the same method that other friends of the hospital are paid. This is so that the representative of the payer would not know what a particular payee is being remunerated for. The entire thing is shrouded in secrecy. They have a way of stimulating us to harvest the sperm.”
It is not, however, certain whether or not there could be a repercussion of “too much donation” for such commercial donors in future.
The ARFH President said oocytes ( eggs) are the most difficult gametes to freeze because they contain a large cytoplasm containing fluid, which crystallizes on freezing. “It was very difficult to successfully freeze and thaw oocytes till vitrification became widely practiced. Oocyte ( egg) cryopreservation ( freezing) was considered experimental in the United States of America till 2012 when the American Society for Reproductive Medicine ( ASRM) removed that label following studies that demonstrated safety and successful pregnancies from frozen- thawed oocytes,” Fiebai said.
He said, in Nigeria, very few facilities have the expertise and capacity to freeze oocytes successfully and the only way they can be transported is in the frozen state and it requires the use of special tanks which would have to pass through customs as they are shipped by air. “In summary, the terms harvest, slaughter etc. are indicative of ignorance on the part of the author,” Fiebai said.
As regards what is the true situation, the fertility expert said some women who are unfortunate to have lost the ability to produce eggs might benefit from the use of donor eggs to achieve pregnancy. He said reasons for this include the natural ageing process as the ovaries cease to produce eggs after menopause. Other reasons, he said, include premature ovarian failure, congenital abnormalities like Turner’s syndrome, surgical removal of the ovaries for various reasons including cancer, damage to the ovaries from radiation and other toxic factors.