Fibroid Among Nigerian Women Worries Expert

Professor of Surgery at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Prof. Osato Giwa-Osagie , has expressed concern over the alarming frequency of fibroid among Nigerian women.

Giwa-Osagie said, while delivering a lecture at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) on Wednesday that, more than 40 per cent of every 500 women scanned for the condition, had fibroid.

In the lecture titled, “The Development and Future of Advanced Fertility Management: A West African Perspective”, the surgeon said however, that fibroid was a common abnormality.

“It is more common in black women than in white women and in a study we did when we did a scan of women complaining of infertility, in about 500 women, this is about four years ago, we found out that over 400 per cent of the women have fibroid”.

He said black women had the gene for forming the disease and advised Nigerian women to understand that it could happen to them.

He advised women to always go for scanning if they experienced heavy menstruation, prolonged periods, pains or miscarriages, as a preventive measure.

On increasing infertility in young women, Giwa-Osagie blamed it on teenage abortions and sexually transmitted diseases from unprotected sex.

“There is so much infection around. So, you may not get pregnant, but you have unprotected sex and you catch a sexually transmitted disease that can damage your womb or tubes.

“Some of them do actually do get pregnant, but may lose it, but where they had their baby or where they had their D and C is not a hygienic environment, so they are exposed to infection which now shows up later as infertility”.

He, however, said that there was more awareness now and that people were getting the help they needed promptly.

Speaking on the state of healthcare delivery system in the country, Giwa-Osagie noted that statistics released by international agencies scored Nigeria very low.

“Access to healthcare in Nigeria is poor and it is poorer than it should be, considering the millions we are making from oil daily.

“Nigeria is underperforming in terms of healthcare service delivery. There is no doubt about it. Anybody that says otherwise is deceiving himself or herself.

“We should pull our weight. We have the manpower, we have the money, we have the intelligence. Let us put our money where our mouth is and do it properly”.