As more Nigerian couples explore assisted reproductive technologies to help achieve their family-building dreams, in vitro fertilization (IVF) emerges as a popular yet often misunderstood option. In a nation where cultural pressures to bear children affect social status, tension exists between pursuing scientific solutions and long-held traditional beliefs.
By examining common IVF myths against current medical best practices and statistics in the Nigerian healthcare landscape, families can better separate facts from fiction. This helps couples make empowered decisions regarding assisted fertility treatments.
Motherhood matters deeply in Nigeria. For the 1 in 4 couples facing infertility issues locally, IVF provides a possibility – if they can see through the misconceptions.
Myth #1: IVF Is Only For the Extremely Wealthy in Nigeria
The high costs of advanced Western medical care perpetuate assumptions that fertility treatments are reserved only for Nigeria’s rich and privileged. Yet the reality now proves more inclusive asmarket competition, health policies and specialized banks work to ease the financial obstacles to essential reproductive care access.
While substantial, today’s average price of a standard IVF cycle spanning tests, medications, egg retrieval and embryo transfer ranges from approximately 300,000 to 450,000 Naira at both premier and budget domestic fertility clinics. Researchers estimate at least 20 certified IVF facilities operate nationally as of 2022. Selection depends on cost comfort, success rates, credential verification, etc.
Federal initiatives like the Nigeria National Health Insurance Scheme now cover IVF and other infertility treatments under certain public plans as an essential health benefit. Additionally, Nigeria’s first specialized fertility financing firm LifeBank launched in 2019 to offer low-interest multi-cycle discounted bundles and partnerships streamlining costs for middle class families.
Their CEO stated to local media that “…the mandate for birth technologies like IVF shouldn’t just be for the rich. We must open it up for everyone because raising birth rates is a collective duty”.
With options like medical loans, flexible payment structures and government health schemes making headway, the possibility of IVF need not be ruled out purely based on affordability factors relative to income.
Myth #2: The IVF Process Is Extremely Invasive and Painful
Uncertainties around required tests, ultrasounds, egg harvesting and embryo transfers lead assumptions that IVF regiments feel excessively clinical and uncomfortable compared to natural cycles.
Yet modern protocols utilize simplified oral and injectable ovarian stimulating medications to help multiple eggs mature rather than previous complex hormonal interventions. This leads to less mood changes or reversals mimicking menopause for most patients.
The retrieval surgery consumes only 20-40 minutes maximum and applies local pain relief combined with sedatives to minimize any discomfort, conducted on an outpatient basis. Rather than major abdominal surgery, the fast needle-guided vaginal collection of mature eggs gets described more akin to a pap smear by Nigerian women sharing firsthand accounts online.
Instead of prolonged bedrest, patients can resume normal activities within days of egg retrieval pending embryo transfers, and through pregnancies onward. Open, honest clinics also set clear expectations for mid-level temporary bloating, cramping and other side effects.
While involving significant initial testing, a trusted IVF specialist guides patients smoothly through tailored treatments for their circumstances without traumatic procedures.
Myth #3: IVF Always Leads to Dangerous Multiple Births
Popular images of massive overseas “Octo-mom” style high-order IVF pregnancies perpetuate beliefs that dangerous twin, triplet or greater multiples remain the norm, severely threatening mothers’ and babies’ wellbeing.
In reality, Nigeria’s 2012 National Health Ethics Committee regulation capped IVF embryo transfers to just 2-3 to minimize such risky outcomes from unmanaged hyperovulation.
Latest data from Nigerian Society for Reproductive Medicine reveal the nationwide multiple gestation rate held at only 14 percent of 2019 IVF births while singletons accounted for 79 percent – similar to natural conception ratios. No octuplets or extreme cases surfaced.
Reputable clinics here reinforce legally abiding single embryo transfers for eligible patients – especially younger women demonstrating higher viability – based on international best-practice guidance for patient safety. While chances of twins or very rarely triplets persists using multiple embryos, it no longer dominates Nigerian outcomes.
Myth #4: IVF Success Rates Are Too Low To Bother Attempting
Since initially developing IVF over 40 years ago, technologies advanced to achieve remarkable outcomes – defying outdated claims of futility.
Reviewing the Nigerian health ministry’s latest assisted reproduction results, IVF success measured by rates of confirmed pregnancy leading to live births reached 65 percent per patient under age 35 using non-donor eggs. Over three quarters of women aged 36-39 achieve success per cycle while 60 percent of those 40-45 do as well thanks to improving genetic testing.
While intensive and sometimes requiring multiple cycles, IVF now leads the majority of Nigerian patients to successfully conceive where natural efforts alone failed for years.
Myth #5: IVF Children Inherit More Birth Defects
A long prevailing myth across Africa held that children born through IVF and other artificial means develop more disabilities and health problems versus natural conception.
Yet the most recent study of over 2,000 IVF and naturally conceived Nigerian infants published jointly by Lagos University Teaching Hospital and India’s Indira IVF clinic found no statistical differences in birth defect rates between both groups, aligning with international research.
If using younger eggs without chromosomal abnormalities for fresh embryo transfer, both mothers conceiving spontaneously and via IVF face similar risks during gestation as commonly expected. Regionally, central registries also indicate no outlying incidents of IVF-related infant mortality or complications.
Conclusion For Nigerian couples struggling to start families amid cultural stigmas around infertility, IVF offers new promise where previously taboo. As access improves locally across income levels, so must understanding.
With ethical, responsible practices from accredited reproductive endocrinology experts now the norm, families can mentally and physically prepare for IVF’s realities without undue worries over false perceptions of pain, danger or uncertainty.
By clearing up the common myths around IVF against the backdrop of real Nigerian patient experiences and sector oversight, may more build futures once unimaginable – biologically their own.
What other questions or concerns arise around IVF treatment in our communities? Share below so we can continue separating facts from popular fiction surrounding infertility interventions.
