Surrogacy is potential solution for female Infertility — Olaronke Thaddeus

Nigerian challenged by infertility have been enjoined to embrace surrogacy as  a viable medical treatment option.

Giving the admonition in Lagos, an  advocate for fertility treatment, Mrs Olaronke Thaddeus, called for a shift in perspective on surrogacy and In-Vitro Fertilisation, IVF.

Thaddeus, who s a fertility counselor and the Founder of Meet Surrogate Mothers Agency, a surrogacy foused outfit in Lagos,  said surrogacy and IVF are medical interventions that should be seen as viable options for women struggling with infertility, and not ridiculed due to societal beliefs.

Available estimates suggest that infertility affects 8 percent to 30 percent of couples in Nigeria, and Thaddeus, in a chat, explained that  surrogacy allows women with medical conditions to have children with a genetic link through using their own eggs and their husband’s sperm. This, she stressed, can be a beacon of hope for those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to experience biological parenthood.

Emphasising the importance of raising awareness and dispelling misconceptions surrounding surrogacy, she said that increased acceptance could empower women to make informed choices about their reproductive health.

“We are holding a  conference on May 30 at the EKO Hotel where  we will educate women about fertility treatment issues such as  IVF and so on, and we will be  giving about 15 women the chance to get free cycles of IVF for surrogacy.

“A lot of couples that are  looking for fruit of the womb cannot even think about doing IVF, these are the women that  we want to reach out to in addition to educating women about various means and channels they can exploit to having their own babies rather than waiting endlessly for the fruit of the womb.”

Further, Thaddeus said surrogacy is a topic that does not get its deserved publicity, even as she called for increased public enlightenement on its positive influence.

“It’s not a bad thing when a woman cannot help herself to achieve her dream of giving birth and she decides to seek for help from another woman to help her to carry her pregnancy, so this is why I’m advocating for this awareness on surrogacy.  I’m reaching out, so that these medical interventions are seen as light, a ray of hope for women and not something of ridicule.”

Noting that in the US,  Europe and other countries, surrogacy and IVF are widely available and accepted options, she regretted that in Nigeria, many women still struggle with surrogacy because of societal beliefs, tradition, and religion.

On multiple fibroid surgeries, she said fibroids can complicate pregnancy, and repeated surgeries can scar the uterus lining, further reducing chances of conception.

“While some women conceive after fibroid removal, surrogacy offers an alternative for those who struggle. Women experiencing repeated miscarriages, which can be emotionally and physically draining, can explore surrogacy as a path to parenthood.

 “For this set of women, changing the environment might just be the solution. The environment means using another  woman to help her carry the pregnancy. It could just probably be that she has some issues that are within her, causing her to have the miscarriage, so using surrogate mothers would help her out of the problem, many women are affected with miscarriages.

Explaining that surrogacy is not illegal in Nigeria, she argued that there is no law for or against surrogacy.

“As it is, it is not illegal, what we do when we have someone who is interested in using our surrogacy agency service is to first draft contracts to let the person be familiar with the terms and conditions of the programme.

“Here at Meet Surrogate Mothers, we practice gestational surrogacy, meaning that the surrogate mother’s eggs are not going to be used for the IVF, so the baby in question is not genetically related to the surrogate’s mother, but  is related to the intending mother and intending father.

“We don’t practice traditional surrogacy.  We will then send you to the hospital for evaluation, and once you are evaluated, stimulation will begin if you are using your eggs. Once your eggs are retrieved, they will be fertilized with your partner’s sperm and your embryos will be generated. It is these embryos that will now be transferred into the surrogate mother’s womb.

“We will provide the surrogate mother and manage her on behalf of the intending parents all through pregnancy to delivery. Explaining that the agency  practices anonymous surrogacy, she said: “ We keep your identity and your information confidential, and that of the surrogate mother too. When the baby is about to be born, you will also be in the hospital to welcome your baby. That’s what the process entails.”

According to Thaddeus, not all women can benefit from surrogacy.

“There are some categories of women that truly surrogacy is what they need, but if they are not doing it, they are going for adoption, and not every woman wants to adopt a baby.  There are many women who want a child that they are genetically related to, and surrogacy avails them the option of using their own eggs and their husband’s sperm to generate embryos that will be transferred into the surrogate mother.”

On compensation, she said no amount of money can pay for this service. “You can only compensate these ladies. That is the truth. Okay, so somebody is helping you. So at the end of the day, she gets compensated. But in terms of value, nobody can truly pay for that service. In the surrogate model agency, we do work with women who have given birth before, to be a surrogate mother means that you must have given birth to your own children, because you don’t give what you don’t have.

“I need you to have your own children so that you can be psychologically balanced. I also need you to have had your kids so that you have experience about what pregnancy is all about, so I work with women between the age of 25 to 38, not necessarily with married women. In the past I have worked with few married women but I stopped working with married women So at Meet Surrogate Mother, presently we only do single mothers.”

Further, she said: “The risks for the surrogate are the same risks that are there for every pregnant woman. This is why we don’t leave the management of the surrogate mother to the intending parents. We are trying to protect her, ensure that she gets the best medical care during the pregnancy period, because she is doing this willingly. It will not be nice at the end of the day, if something bad happens to her. We want to have been said to have done all our best medically for every surrogate’s mother that helps an intended mother.”