Online Reporter
Fungai Lupande
Mashonaland Central Bureau
DRUG abuse and untreated reproductive-tract infections are emerging as major threats to fertility.
Experts are warning that men and women risk permanent damage to their reproductive systems through preventable infections and harmful lifestyles. Renowned Ghanaian obstetrician-gynaecologist and fertility specialist, Dr Edem Hiadzi, said sexually transmitted infections, particularly gonorrhoea and chlamydia, were among the major causes of infertility in sub-Saharan Africa.
Alcohol, smoking and drug abuse could also impair sperm production in men. Dr Hiadzi, immediate past president of the Fertility Society of Ghana, said the consequences of untreated infections could be devastating.This includes blocked reproductive tubes in women and damage to the sperm-carrying ducts in men.
He was speaking during a virtual Merck Foundation health media training for Zambia, Zimbabwe and Maldives, held in Bindura recently.
“Infertility is not a stigma. It affects both men and women equally,” Dr Hiadzi said. He said infections could silently damage the reproductive system even when a person showed few or no symptoms.
“Chlamydia and gonorrhea are sexually transmitted diseases which may have no symptoms, but leave you with silent infections which will cause pelvic inflammation,” he said.
The resulting complications, he said, could cause infertility or increase the risk of ectopic pregnancy in women.
In men, untreated gonorrhoea and chlamydia could cause chronic inflammation of the epididymis and blockage of the vas deferens, the tubes that carry sperm, resulting in a low sperm count or, in severe cases, no sperm in the semen.
