Nigerian challenged by infertility have been enjoined to embrace surrogacy as a viable medical treatment option.
Giving the admonition in Lagos, an advocate for fertility treatment, Mrs Olaronke Thaddeus, called for a shift in perspective on surrogacy and In-Vitro Fertilisation, IVF.
Thaddeus, who s a fertility counselor and the Founder of Meet Surrogate Mothers Agency, a surrogacy foused outfit in Lagos, said surrogacy and IVF are medical interventions that should be seen as viable options for women struggling with infertility, and not ridiculed due to societal beliefs.
Available estimates suggest that infertility affects 8 percent to 30 percent of couples in Nigeria, and Thaddeus, in a chat, explained that surrogacy allows women with medical conditions to have children with a genetic link through using their own eggs and their husband’s
sperm. This, she stressed, can be a beacon of hope for those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to experience biological parenthood.
Emphasising the importance of raising awareness and dispelling misconceptions surrounding surrogacy, she said that increased acceptance could empower women to make informed choices about their reproductive health.
We are holding a conference on May 30 at the EKO Hotel where we will educate women about fertility treatment issues such as IVF and so on, and we will be giving about 15 women the chance to get free cycles of IVF for surrogacy.
A lot of couples that are looking for fruit of the womb cannot even think about doing IVF, these are the women that we want to reach out to in addition to educating women about various means and channels they can exploit to having their own babies rather than waiting endlessly for the fruit of the womb.”
Further, Thaddeus said surrogacy is a topic that does not get its deserved publicity, even as she called for increased public enlightenement on its positive influence.
It’s not a bad thing when a woman cannot help herself to achieve her dream of giving birth and she decides to seek for help from another woman to help her to carry her pregnancy, so this is why I’m advocating for this awareness on surrogacy. I’m reaching out, so that these medical interventions are seen as light, a ray of hope for women and not something of ridicule.”
