Infertility is on the increase in
Nigeria. The population that is involved with regard to infertility is
as high as 20-25 per cent of married couples. One in five couples have
fertility problem and the trend is on the increase for two reasons.
One, there is increased awareness about
the problem. Secondly, there are more problems that are occurring within
the body that are technology-related.
They include the following…
Stress
For men and women, the first type of
stress is emotional stress simply because ours is a highly stressed
society. From home to work, and every other thing in-between, they are
all stress-related.
Continue reading after the cut....
Continue reading after the cut....
There is stress in getting on the traffic
on the road; there is stress in achieving what you want to do. There is
fear of armed robbery, while financial stress is also there. The level
of stress that goes into planning a marriage ceremony and the money
spent by the couple are all stress-inducing. All these have far-reaching
consequences on a centre in the brain called the hypothalamus – the
centre that controls some of the reproductive functions.
Stress is a condition that triggers the
stress (adrenal) gland. In women, when there is too much pressure on the
adrenal gland, it will affect the ovary. In men, stress is known to
reduce sperm production by 15 per cent. It destroys the spermatozoa.
Age factor
Many people now marry late. Twenty years
ago, most women got married at the age of 25 or even earlier. Today,
people are getting married at the age of 32 or older. For men, it is
even slightly higher. At this age, reproductive function is already
declining. Based on statistics, someone who is between 16 and 21 years
old has a fertility rate of about 75 per cent. By the time you get to
age 40, it would have declined to eight per cent.
Environmental hazards
There are too many things in our
environment that lead to infertility. For instance, excessive use of
alternative energy leads to the release of hydrocarbons, with
far-reaching consequences on the sperm production process in men and the
ovulation process in women. These days, almost every house has a
generator, which releases fumes and pollute the air whenever they are
switches on. Again, areas reserved for residential are sometimes
converted for commercial use. When they switch on their generators,
serious toxins fill the air, polluting it.
Poor water source
We don’t have enough regulation to
control our water system and there are a lot of poisons being released
into the water system. In some cases, petrol stations are sited near the
river. We site soap and dry cleaning industries in odd places. These
have serious consequences on fertility.
Men firing blank
When it comes to infertility, the male
factor is rising. The use of hard drugs, smoking, alcohol and marijuana
use have far-reaching effects on sperm count and sperm production.
Occupational hazards
Those who work with heavy metals and
those who work in hydro- and petrochemical industries are at risk. Men
working in plastic and paint industries are also at risk, because the
chemicals in use are known to damage the sperm.
Sperm count hitherto
Ten years ago, when you have 10 couples
with infertility problem, it almost always had to do with tube blockage,
while those who are unable to ovulate may be 15-20 per cent. For the
men, it could be low sperm count. Then, you could help them if you
concentrate the sperm and inseminate the woman with it. But today, you
are having as high as between 35 and 40 per cent of men with low sperm.
A substantial per cent, say 15-20 per
cent, need sperm donor for artificial insemination of their wives
through the procedure we call intracytospemic sperm injection, simply
because their sperm cannot achieve anything. A low percentage of men
have obstruction to the sperm, which are genetical factors whereby the
pathway is blocked. So, you have to do a special procedure called
testicular extraction to extract the sperm from the testis and then
employ it for ICSI to achieve fertilisation.
Sperm count
Sperm count is the amount of sperm that
is produced in semen. When a man ejaculates, he comes up with a fluid,
either grey or yellowish in colour. The semen contains very small cells
known as spermatozoon for one and spermatozoa for many. Normally, it
should be 60 million in one ml and a man should be able to produce about
2-3mls per ejaculate. So, you will be expecting about 120-200 million
sperms in that ejaculate.
You could have oligospermia, in which
case the sperm is there, but in small quantity. Anything below 40 per
cent or 40 million per ml is oligospermia. However, a man that has 10
million sperm cells can get a young lady that is very fertile pregnant;
whereas a man that has 40 million sperm cells and has an old or
not-so-fertile wife may find it difficult to impregnate the woman.
Men may also suffer from azoospermia (the
lack of sperm cells in the semen); or aspermia, which means the
complete lack of semen in the ejaculate.
There is also low motility – in which
case, the sperms are there, but they are not very motile; they can’t
move all the way to the tube from the vagina. By the time they get to
the uterus, most of them are dead because they are slow moving.
-Punch
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