Tackle childlessness naturally

According to Emily McDonald Evens, of the Department of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, though fertility is a global problem, it is an under-recognised public health issue which can no longer remain so.

She also notes that individuals and couples suffering from unwanted childlessness experience significant, at times life-threatening, consequences. And because of the extended family system that is practised in most parts of Africa, including Nigeria, childlessness does not remain the problem of the affected couples alone and it can tear families apart.

Most couples assume that pregnancy will occur soon after discontinuing contraception. They scrutinise their behaviours, habits, and lifestyle to try to understand why they have not been able to conceive. They also examine the timing, frequency, and technique of intercourse to explain why they have not been able to conceive.

Experts say infertility is a disease of the reproductive system which affects both men and women with almost equal frequency. They argue that it is a global phenomenon, with some portion of every human population affected.

It is estimated that an average of 10 per cent of the global reproductive-age population is unable to get pregnant or carry a pregnancy to term. And while there is no universal definition of infertility, a couple is generally considered clinically infertile when pregnancy has not occurred after at least 12 months of regular sexual activity without the use of contraceptives.

Primary infertility is defined as childlessness and secondary infertility as the inability to have an additional live birth for a parous woman – that is, a woman who has had a child before.

The Global Library of Women’s Medicine describes infertility as a life crisis, underscoring the frustrations that families experience when they cannot reproduce as expected.

Women often assume that they are the cause of the infertility and search their past for a potential cause. Women who have had a sexually transmitted disease or previous abortion may be convinced that the infertility is a result of those events. This may lead them to feel guilty and question their worthiness as a wife and a potential mother. Less often, the man may wonder if a past medical condition, medication, or habit may be compromising his fertility. When the couple continues to have difficulty conceiving, most seek medical advice and treatment, including trying to find an explanation for their problem.

At some time during the infertility evaluation and treatment, couples may feel intense anger. They may argue that life has treated them unfairly and that their infertility is unjust. They may become intensely angry when they see individuals, whom they believe undeserving, achieve a pregnancy with little or no effort. They may feel very angry when they hear a pregnant woman display disgust or unhappiness with her pregnancy; when they see women with an unwanted pregnancy seeking an abortion; or when they observe a mother or father abusing their child.

Despite all the advances that the human race has experienced in the treatment of infertility, the issue is still treated as a taboo, and couples actually find it difficult to disclose the causes of their challenges until they are forced to do so when the problem can no longer be hidden.

Worse still, many of the assisted reproductive technologies are so expensive that they are beyond the earning capability of most couples. Fertility experts say that on the average, an in-vitro fertilisation process costs about N250,000, depending on the age of the couple, the state of their health, etc.

Worse still, the rate of success for IVF is still about 45 per cent; as such, an individual can undergo five cycles or more without achieving pregnancy. When this happens, it is not only frustrating, it drains the couples of their hard earned money, wastes time and wreaks psychological havoc on them.

When couples are infertile, they feel a sense of loss of self-esteem, relationships, health, and financial security. All these add to their woes. This ought not to be so, as the medical sciences have made it possible for infecund couples to achieve their dream of raising a family through natural remedies that have very little or no side effects, affordable and reassuring.

Fidson Healthcare Plc, foremost Nigerian pharmaceutical giant, has developed two drugs that those who have had access to them say are effective in the treatment of both primary and secondary infertility. They are Addyzoa for men and M2-Tone for women.

Addyzoa has been indicated in the management of male infertility, as it is estimated that in approximately 30 per cent of infertile couples, the ‘fault’ lies with the male; in another 20 per cent, both male and female factors are responsible. Thus, in around half of all infertile couples, male-factor infertility plays a part in the inability to conceive a child.ameters are important causes of male-factor infertility, though there is a large group of men for whom no cause can be identified.

The list of conventional medicines for non-specific therapy is long and includes clomiphene, tamoxifen, and mesterolone. Success rates varying from 10 to 50 per cent have been reported with these agents, but overall, results remain poor.

Addyzoa is an Ayurvedic medicine which has been widely used for the empirical treatment of male infertility for more than three decades and still counting. In other words, its success has been proved over and again in treating male infertility.

To test the efficacy of Addyzoa, a total of 50 patients with male-factor infertility of no known cause attending the Malhotra Test Tube Baby Centre and Agra Andrology Centre in India were recruited in the present study.

On the basis of routine clinical examination, semen analysis, and, where necessary, further investigations (including sperm function tests, anti-sperm antibody tests, blood hormone profile, and scrotal ultrasound scan to rule out varicocele), all were diagnosed with male infertility of no known cause.

The patients were then randomly assigned in a double-blind fashion to treatment with Addyzoa or placebo (oral administration of two capsules twice daily for three months). The two groups were equally sized, each containing 25 patients. Repeat semen analysis was conducted at monthly intervals, with sperm density, motility, and morphology being evaluated.

At the end of the day, there was an improvement in sperm density in 84 per cent of patients on Addyzoa, compared with 52 per cent of patients on placebo.

In the case of M2-Tone, which is used to treat female infertility, a study was conducted on 50 women of unexplained infertility. Twenty-five each were administered M2-Tone syrup and placebo to scientifically reassess efficacy at a primary level.

M2-Tone syrup is a herbomineral formulation blended with 47 natural chemically active ingredients, known for their efficacy in various gynaecological disorders. The results showed 33.3 per cent conception rate, with full safety in M2-Tone group; while only one conception was recorded in the placebo group.

Additionally, in 36.3 per cent women, M2-Tone cured menstrual irregularities. All the women with menorrhagia and hypomenorrhoea and 75 per cent with spasmodic dysmenorrhoea responded favourably. The mechanism by which M2-Tone acts is by its proven “estrogenic” effect on the female reproductive system.

Addyzoa and M2-Tone are distributed exclusively by Fidson Healthcare Plc in Nigeria, and they are available in pharmaceutical stores.

Doctors say medicines must be taken under professional supervision.