Increasingly, the largest black nation in the world is facing yet another ticking time bomb that if not checked by the relevant authorities may affect reproduction in no distance as it is no longer news that students on campuses both males and females even at the secondary school level are engaging in the donations and sales of gametes ( spermatozoa and eggs ) for a few bucks to make ends meet. In the process, many of them run into quack doctors whose actions are likely to cause them deleterious health challenges.
Besides, individuals who pose as agents or middlemen also profit from the exploitative act as they influence donors through monetary benefits.
In many developed countries like the United States, New Zealand and Australia, there are laws guiding IVF and other assisted reproductive techniques, but there are none in Nigeria.
In the US, it is legal for a woman to donate eggs either anonymously or otherwise with a compensation of between $30,000 to $50,000.
The donor is required to sign a contract that ensures she does not have any legal rights or responsibilities to any resulting children or embryos.
Although the woman who receives the egg will not be a genetic relation of the child, legal documents will record her as the birth mother.
In other countries like New Zealand, Canada and France, monetary compensation is outlawed.
In Nigeria there is generally a low level of awareness of health risks, as well as procedures associated with eggs and sperm donation among females.
Short term side effects of egg donation include mild bloating, abdominal pain, breast tenderness, and mood swings, typically resolving post-treatment. Rare risks like ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome ,OHSS, affect ~1% of donors, possibly needing medical care. Long-term health risks are not confirmed, but research is limited, leaving some uncertainty.
Generally, experts have pointed out that egg and sperm donation is no different from blood donation, apart from the differences in the donation process. Of the three tissues, egg donation has the more robust process, requiring a regimen of injections over a period of time. Sperm donation, on the other hand, has the simplest process that could last less than five minutes to undertake.
Buying and selling of female eggs and or donating sperm have become one of the recent public health concerns and the practices have generated global discussion involving its ethical, religious, physical, social and health risks as regards to the egg donor.
Donors undergo similar treatment as IVF patients. Despite this, existing studies on the long-term risks of IVF treatment only include IVF patients, not egg donors. IVF patients are often monitored before, during, and after their treatment, some studies tracking their health for over for a long while. With egg donors they are never seen or heard from again after the process.
Egg donors have reported long-term effects including aggressive breast cancer, loss of fertility, and fatal colon cancer, sometimes occurring just a few years after donation. Without any family history of these illnesses, they suspect their egg donation as the cause. However, without scientific research, no one can confirm or deny a causal association between the medical procedure of egg donation and any reported long-term effect.
Sadly quacks on the prowl, taking advantage of large number of infertility cases as increasingly an unprecedented donors are brimming the index, largely buoyed by the pecuniary gains.
There is the need for advocacy and caution for donors to always approach specialised personnel and institutions when it becomes imperative to donate eggs or sperm.
While donors of their tissues may be smiling to their banks, they should not allow the everyday socio-economic needs drive them to the brink of preposterous health conditions following their actions.
We are aware that whereas there have been substantial studies on IVF procedures with the boundaries of risks established, not much has been known of the effects of these donors who resort to patronizing quacks around the corners for quick money.
There is the urgency of a legal framework to determine the parametres for which these practices can be operational especially to mitigate the public health concerns that could ensue. That is where the authorities have to weigh in
