A consultant gynaecologist, Dr. Ademolake Ayodele, has revealed how infertile couples can gain access to reasonably affordable In vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment and achieve positive outcomes.
He also urged expectant mothers and couples not to lose hope but to embrace cost-effective innovative methods of assisted pregnancy.
Ayodele, also the Medical Director, StrongTower Hospital and Advanced Fertility Centre, a Lagos-based private medical facility, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
He spoke in commemoration of the 2024 World IVF Day
NAN reports that the World IVF Day is celebrated annually on July 25 to recognise the advances made in fertility medicine since the first successful birth resulting from IVF in 1978.
According to him, the major challenges most people have with the IVF are the financial involvement and fear that it can fail.
Ayodele said that there were different kinds of options that people could explore to do the IVF at an affordable rate.
Ayodele lamented that a lot people were ignorant of the various existing cheaper options.
He advised that people should not lose hope, rather, they should inquire about the cheaper alternatives.
“Unfortunately, yet some clinics are still very expensive, but there are a lot of options now that have driven the price to become more affordable than when it started.
“So, a lot of people are beginning to have hopes that if their contemporaries can afford it; they too can afford it.
“And I think it is a question of people making the necessary investigations to inquire what the various prices are.
“The problem before now is that a lot of people just assume that once IVF is mentioned – it is too expensive.
“But the truth is that if people can take the pain to find out, they will be surprised that there are cheaper alternatives, and there are also some innovations that one can do to bring the prices down.
“For example, a woman who doesn’t have much money but have viable eggs can share eggs with someone who has money but does not have viable eggs, thereby bringing down the price,” he said.
He, therefore, called for increased education, advocacy and sensitisation about IVF to educate the public more on the system and the existing cheaper and successful options.O
Ayodele said the testimonies surrounding IVF had made a lot of people to embrace it now more than before.
The gynecologist said that IVF was covered by health insurance for young people in the western world.
He, however, lamented that such insurance scheme does not exist in Africa and Nigeria in particular.
“In advanced countries like U.S. and UK, young couples who are infertile do IVF free of charge; paid by their health insurance, but there’s no such insurance in Nigeria – it is a big challenge.
“Here in Nigeria people pay from their pockets and savings to do IVF; I remember that people toile, do cooperative and even borrow loans to do it.
“So, it is really a lot of burden on individuals who have fertility challenge compared with their contemporaries in the western world.
“But my advice is that people should not loose hope; they should actually inquiry; there may just be a way where they think there has not been a way.
“If people do not keep to themselves waiting that maybe one day something will happen. Let them come out – there are always ways we can help people to get pregnant at affordable rate.
“But many of those things are still that people must come to the clinic, inquire and say their challenges.
“And a lot of people even do IVF and pay in installments and then, there are also some banks that partner with IVF clinics to pay and then people pay back – there are all kinds of options that people can consider,” Ayodele said.(NAN)
