This archive report was first published on 30 October 2021.
On November 2, First Lady Margaret Kenyatta will be the chief guest at the World Fertility Day conference at the Nairobi Serena Hotel, hosted by Fertility Kenya, a medical health NGO that seeks to raise awareness around infertility.
According to Cecilia Mwangi, the chairlady of Fertility Kenya, the event aims to raise awareness and stop the societal stigmatisation around issues of infertility that affect women deeply, but are also a great concern to men.
Dr. Sarita Sukhija, an IVF expert with over 5,000 patients treated in India, Spain, Cleveland, and the US, has set up an IVF centre in Kenya. She notes that approximately 20 per cent of couples have delays or actual difficulties in matters of conception.
Dr. Sukhija believes that it is essential for couples to know that half of the cases of infertility are to do with the man, issues of spermatozoon mobility or motility, rather than blaming the woman.
She explains that the success rates of having successful pregnancy decrease with each year, mainly because of ageing of eggs and the abnormal embryos that result in non-implantation or miscarriage as a result of abnormal chromosomes.
Dr. Sukhija observes that in Kenya, many women marry late, or get divorced then have second marriages - which obviously pushes them into their late thirties or early forties for the trying of babies.
She notes that in such females, bilateral tubal blockages are quite common, often because of pelvic infections, then fibroids are quite common.
Dr. Sukhija recommends that women in their twenties or early thirties who are putting off having babies should freeze their eggs, as the rate of having a successful pregnancy decreases inversely with each passing year.
On World Fertility Day, Fertility Kenya has organised a procession parade from 10am at Harambee Avenue and will proceed to Serena Hotel, where the conference will be.
