Prevalence of Infertility in Women in a Southwestern Nigerian Community

The prevalence and common causes of infertility in women agedbetween 15 and 55 years was assessed in four hospital centers in OsunState, located in the SouthWestern part of Nigeria. A survey of aconsecutive sample of 200 cases of infertility were carried out in fourhospital centers with a total of 50 cases of infertility evaluated in eachof the centers between 2001 – 2003. The incidence of high infertility inwomen was established in all the centers; (Obafemi AwolowoUniversity Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife), 59.4%, (Obafemi AwolowoUniversity Teaching Hospital, Ilesa), 47.7%, (Ladoke AkintolaUniversity Teaching Hospital, Oshogbo), 54.8% and (General Hospital,Ikire), 44.2%. 77.5% was recorded for a high rate of secondaryInfertility, while Primary Infertility was 22.5%. The commonest causesof infertility in this environment were, the tubal factor, uterine factor,and ovarian factor representing 39.5%, 30% and 13% respectively. Theleast common cause were cervical factor, Pelvic Infection Disease(PID), and endometriosis which was seen in 3%, 5.5% and 2.5% of thesubjects respectively. There was also prevalence of infertility betweenthe ages: 15 – 25 years at the rate of 17%, while 26 – 35 years at therate of 31.5%. The majority of the cases occurred between the ages of36 – 45 at the rate of 50.5% and between 46 – 55 years at the rate 1%.(Afr. J. Biomed. Res. 11: 225 - 227)Key words: Infertility, Pelvic Infection Disease (PID), endometriosis.