AT least 3,000 babies have been born through In Vitro Fertilization, IVF, and other Assisted Reproductive Techniques, ART, since the Medical ART Center, Lagos, was established in 1994 by the joint pioneer of IVF in Nigeria, Prof Oladapo Ashiru.
In a related development, over 200 infertile couples have been enabled to achieve their parenthood dreams through gestational surrogacy at the Center.
Disclosing this to Vanguard in a chat, the Medical Director, MART, Dr Mojisola Aderonmu, said through efforts of the Centre, hope has been rekindled for infertile couples through novel approaches in fertility treatment.
“These technologies include In vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) – a type of assisted reproductive technology (ART) for treating infertility, Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, ICSI, TESA, Fertility preservation with frozen sperm and eggs, gestational surrogacy, etc., all of which have brought hope and happiness to many families.
Speaking ahead of the Centre’s 30th anniversary, Aderonmu remarked, “Our Assisted Reproductive Technology, ART, at the Medical ART Center has been a source of immense joy for families, with over 3,000 babies born through our services. For 30 years, we have brought happiness to numerous Nigerians and foreigners. Our significant contributions have not only reduced the country’s foreign exchange expenditure on overseas medical treatments but also put Nigeria on the global map of fertility medicine.
“During this period, we have expanded our services to include a range of healthcare services catering to pregnant women and children at our hospital wing (Mart Medicare).
One such advance is Pre-implantation Genetic Testing (PGT), aiding over 100 families, as documented in the Nigeria Medical Journal-2013. This technology allows couples to have healthy babies free of sickle cell disease.
Aderonmu said that to address these environmental concerns, the MART-Life Detox Clinic, Africa’s first Modern Mayr Medicine center was established to offer specialized detox programmes to help couples eliminate these potential toxins from their bodies before attempting pregnancy.
Also speaking, the founder and Chief Medical Director, MART Group of Services, Prof Oladapo Ashiru, noted.
“Another breakthrough involves identifying environmental factors that can contribute to infertility. Our research suggests a connection between certain everyday habits and difficulty conceiving. For example, driving barefoot for extended periods could lead to antimony exposure from car pedals.
“We have now been able to find out that one of the major causes of infertility has to do with the environment, and things that we eat or drink or we put on our body such as a woman driving barefooted, absorbing antimony from the accelerator of the car or from the brake pedal. And if you drive like that to your office from home, for 30 minutes to one hour to go to office and to come back, you are accumulating one to two hours of antimony every day.
“And if you have been doing that for an average of 300 days in a year, for five years, you are accumulating antimony that can be toxic to the embryo if you are pregnant and it can make you have miscarriage or prevent you from getting pregnant at all.
“If you are drinking, if you are eating a large fish or stockfish, they contain mercury, and mercury has serious consequences on enabling you to get pregnant. And we have now been able to set up a complete unit – the MART-Life Detox Clinic, where these things can be removed from the body before they now get pregnant.”
In his explanation, Ashiru observed that not every client that has gotten pregnant over the years.
“Sometimes it’s not at the first time that they’ll get pregnant. When we look at the success rates, we usually calculate that per month. So how many clients did we treat this month and how many of them got pregnant? The standard the world over in IVF is that if you’re treating for fertility, 40 percent should get pregnant if you’re doing the right thing.
“I can say that we’ve reached that point several times over the years and even exceeded it. To my knowledge, we’ve had up to 67 percent success rate in some cycles in the last 30 years. So we are maintaining and exceeding the global standard. And that is also one achievement that have been there in IVF in general.
“When you realize that when Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards started IVF, the success rate was 10 percent and today, the success rate globally is 30 to 40 percent. It was 30 percent about five years ago. It has moved to 40 percent, and we believe that in another 10 years, we should reach about 80 percent. Because some of the problems have been resolved.
“One example is where you would transfer normal embryos, what I mean by normal, embryos that have been PGT- tested and they do not implant. You transfer to a patient, but she’s not getting pregnant and you now realize that that patient, that woman has a lot of heavy metals or chemical toxins in her.
”You now remove those metals, you detoxify, you clean them from her, and now she gets pregnant. We believe that the next level has to do with implantation. When we understand the mechanisms that control implantation, I guess success rate will improve significantly, almost double what we are having today.”