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Fighting taboo of infertility

Inexpensive in vitro gives women their 'fundamental right'

By Maria Cheng | Thursday, July 17, 2008

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BARCELONA (AP) | Doctors are getting ready to introduce a cheap in vitro fertilization procedure across Africa, where women are sometimes ostracized as witches or social outcasts if they cannot have children.

Millions of dollars go into family-planning projects and condom distribution to prevent pregnancies in Africa, but researchers said that more than 30 percent of women on the continent are unable to have children. An estimated 80 million people in developing countries are infertile worldwide.

"Infertility is taboo in Africa," said Dr. Willem Ombelet, head of a task force at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology looking into infertility in developing countries. "Nobody has paid attention to this issue, but it is a huge problem and we need to do something."

At a media briefing last week at the society's annual conference in Barcelona, Dr. Ombelet said he and colleagues were deciding where to test the new procedure.

A small number of women already have been treated in Khartoum, Sudan, and other projects are expected to start soon in South Africa and Tanzania.

Sembuya Rita, an infertility activist from Uganda, said it was essential for public health officials to address the issue. "It's a fundamental right for every person to have a child," she said.

Ms. Rita said infertile women in Africa can face particular economic hardships. Their husbands may leave them for other women and they can be cut out of family inheritances.

The cheap version of IVF costs less than $200. Standard IVF treatments in the West cost up to $10,000.

Instead of using expensive lab equipment and medicines, researchers said, cheaper options could work. For instance, a water bath could be used in place of an expensive incubator to create an embryo, Mr. Ombelet said.

Less expensive medicines also would effectively stimulate women's ovaries to produce more eggs, and spending could be further trimmed by using low-cost needles and catheters.