Why Women Should Start Childbearing Before 30

National and international experts on fertility issues have revealed the reason why Nigerian women should start childbearing before 30.

The experts during the eighth annual international conference of the Association of Fertility and Reproductive Health (AFRH) in Lagos disclosed that women should start childbirth early because at the age of 30 above fibroid sets in making it difficult or rather impossible to bear any child.

Speaking at the event Steward Disu, consultant gynaecologist said, “We know that it is genetic, we know that west African women, Nigerians, Ghanaians, three out of four of them have fibroids compared to Caucasian women, one out of four women have fibroid.

“And that is the genetic component that Africans have more than the Caucasians. Two, fibroids grow maximally between 30-40 years old. And most of us, with the current socio-economic reality, don’t start having children, the women having their children later after they have gotten a decent job, by that time, fibroid to will show itself.

“We know that in the west part of Nigeria, Ijesha yam is responsible for twins. One of the factors, apart from genetics, is that the nature of the estrogen in the yam is thought to be responsible or supportive of having twins.

“If you use that ideology, then fibroids are probably more common in women that have been exposed to this yam tuber from the age of 9 to the age of forty. It doesn’t mean that every woman that eat yams have fibroids,” she added.

On the same note Joyce Harper, an In Vitro Fertilisation and reproductive genetics specialist, called on women not to wait for long before seeking help through IVF’s as its chances of working just get worse in older women.

“I have had three IVF children and I am not worried about it. We certainly need to follow up with the children. There is no option, if you don’t go through this treatment, the option is no children,” Harper said.

“The best thing is to start trying younger, to not leave it till you grow older because, in the female, it just gets worse. They need to try it sooner. The definition of infertility is trying for one year. One of my best friends have tried 11 times and was not successful.

“A lot of women come when they are 40 and their eggs are just finished. They are not going to get pregnant because their eggs are bad.

“My concern is that because a lot of the clinics are private, they have made it very expensive, and who suffers? The patient, because the patient has to pay. So, I have an issue with that.”