The President of the Academy of Medicine Specialties of Nigeria, Professor Oladapo Ashiru, has said some day-to-day activities that people engage in are capable of causing infertility.

Ashiru, at the inauguration and induction of fellows of the Academy held in Lagos said many people do not pay attention to these factors that had almost been normalised.

In his lecture, Ashiru explained that bad eating habits, stress, driving barefooted, consuming stockfish and fish with a large presence of mercury in them were embryo-toxic and could be a major cause of infertility.

He said, “Some women do not drive with their shoes because they find it easy driving barefooted. Many patients experience miscarriages after going through IVF because the upper lining of those pedals have antimony which has been proven to be embryo-toxic. Not until we remove this antimony from them, they can’t be pregnant or keep a pregnancy.

 “Same goes for mercury which is present in large fish and stockfish; fumigation, oil spillages, the use of lipstick and pesticides are also injurious to health.”

“Fumigation and pesticides can affect a woman who is carrying a baby; it will affect the baby and the child to be born. That is, toxins from pesticides affect three generations.

“Women use a lot of lipstick, unknown to them that they carry a lot of toxins especially if they are cheaply made. Oil spills are also toxins to the sperm and eggs, it causes miscarriage.”

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, urged young doctors not to succumb to the juicy offers they get abroad, urging them to remain in the country to contribute their part to the development of the health sector.

He said, “It will be fair if all doctors trained in Nigeria stay and serve their country in return for the training they got, especially those that were trained at public expense. The training of doctors in Nigeria is highly subsidised, it will be good if they remain for some time to practice and also support the country especially now that there is a high demand for doctors even outside the country.

“Countries come to Nigeria to woo our doctors, I hope that there will be a time we will be able to balance that. At the moment, we can’t compete with salaries but the cost of living here is much lower and our doctors do live well.”

The Chairman, Board of Directors of the Academy, Dr Sonny Kuku, said the admission of the fellows was based on merit.