Families have been urged not to put the social burden of infertility on only women as male infertility accounts for a significant portion of the problem. According to Mrs. Christiana Attram-Yartey, a principal nursing officer at the Tema Metro Health Directorate, society must move away from blaming only women for childlessness and urge couples to seek medical solutions together.
“When you look at all infertility cases, 40% are due to underlying health issues with the man, 40% with the woman, 10% a combination of factors from both man and woman and a 10% proportion due to very extreme scenarios which we sometimes just leave at that without finding reasons for them”.
According to the Principal Nursing Officer, most men assume that they are fine and healthy and would normally push only the woman to go and seek solutions when there is an issue of infertility.
“Society also compounds this problem by blaming women only when there is a problem with childbirth. That according to her is most unfortunate. The perception that infertility problems are due to issues with the woman only is not correct. What we must do is advice couples to seek solutions together” Mrs. Attram-Yartey said.
Mrs. Attram-Yartey gave this advice when she was speaking on Plan B 104.5fm, a Tema based radio station’s health program dubbed “Apomuden fie”.
The principal nursing officer further advised men to be conscious of certain lifestyle practices as they may have consequences for the strength of their sperms.
Available data indicate that at least 50 million couples worldwide experience infertility.
In Ghana, the social burden of infertility in many cultures is placed on women with most childless women having to suffer stigmatization and discrimination in most societies and sometimes driven from their matrimonial home.
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