The Hugh Wynter Fertility Management
Unit
Helping with the Gift of Life
Interview with Dr DaCosta
The ability to have children is never a question until a couple makes the effort and then discovers that it might not be as easy as they thought . God made the reproductive act pleasurable enough that the couple finds themselves enjoying trying over and over to conceive until realisation hits that they might need a bit of help .
Fertility challenges in Jamaica are no different from what couples experience anywhere else in the world . It is however an issue that is not talked about locally as much as it should be and so there are many women who , along with their significant other , will often face this challenge with no assistance .
Age is probably the most important factor that affects fertility in women and her chances of conceiving . At birth a woman usually has the total amount of eggs to last her entire reproductive lifetime but as she ages , her eggs age too and with most things except wine , once age becomes a factor then quantity and quality also become considerations . Over the age of 35 , a woman ’ s chances of getting pregnant decline significantly , not to mention when she gets to age 40 . When a woman is in her 20 ’ s the chances of getting pregnant naturally each month is 25 – 30 % and when she gets to 40 that chance is reduced to 10 %. For a woman aged 40 the likelihood of miscarriage is greater than the chance of a live birth . Additionally older women who go the route of In-Vitro Fertilisation ( IVF ) stand the risk of having children with birth defects or failure in conceiving and that is one of the problems highlighted by the Fertility Management Unit ( FMU ) here in Jamaica . Women are being referred to the FMU when the chances for them to have a successful procedure have become low .
We interviewed Dr Vernon DaCosta , Director of The Hugh Wynter Fertility Management Unit here in Kingston , Jamaica to get a better understanding of what the unit does specifically as it relates to Managing Fertility / Infertility in our Jamaican women .
The Beyond Woman Magazine