Expert advocates oncofertility counselling for women in Nigeria
An expert in fertility has shown there is need for oncofertility counselling for women in Nigeria in order to spread awareness and help patients preserve their fertility after chemotherapy.
Worldwide, millions of individuals in the reproductive age group are affected by cancer, Nigeria inclusive.
Cancer patients do not usually suffer infertility as a direct effect of cancer. More often it is cancer treatment such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy or surgery, which results in reduced fertility or even sterility in cancer survivor.
Abayomi Ajayi, specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology and also the local organising committee chairman of Association for Fertility and Reproductive Health (AFRH) in Nigeria, said the oncofertility counselling would help patients in high survivorship and provide good quality of life.
“There needs to be a change from an old way of thinking to a new one, as this field of oncofertility expands. There exists in Nigeria urgency to clarify and update patients on oncofertility services that are provided on a global scale in order to share best practice,” Ajayi said.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Nigeria’s cancer death ratio of 4 in 5 affected persons is one of the worst in the world and is responsible for 3 percent of total mortality leading to 72,000 death per annum.
The most common cancers in Nigerian women are breast and cervical, while the most common in men is prostate cancer.
Ajayi said when diagnosed with cancer, survival was the foremost on the patients mind, noting that many anti-cancer therapies adversely affect fertility, which is a fact often overlooked in the race to defeat cancer.
“There are several barriers that face oncofertiltiy practise in Nigeria; we have to look at social, cultural, religion, lack of institution and research fund and the issues of cost, and other barriers such as lack of awareness among oncologist, gynaecologist and patients,” according to Ajayi.
Fertility treatments are not covered by health insurance in Nigeria and over 90 percent of fertility service in Nigeria is provided in private centres and clinics, but some In-vitro fertilisation treatment (IVF) centre at university hospitals may offer low-cost service and some charity organisations are now coming up to support patients who have the resources to pay.
“In spite of different barriers, oncofertility has a great potential in Nigeria, areas for improvement in this growing field can be addressed through collaboration of relevant professionals and government bodies,” he said.
The expert further said that advancement in reproduction technology have given cancer survivors hope for future reproduction which makes the fertility preservation conversation more important than ever.
“Fertility preservation is deemed an important aspect of post treatment quality of life. It is new in Nigeria, it is not a thing the country can do for now,” he said.