Dilemmas of Using Traditional Infertility Remedies Among Clients Seeking Infertility Workup in Urban Dar es Salaam

Abstract

Infertility is a serious but largely neglected public health problem in resource-poor countries such as Tanzania. Perceptions on the causes and treatments of infertility vary across societies. A wide array of treatments including conventional therapy, traditional remedies, ineffective or even harmful intervention has been used in managing infertility. The infertile client in urban Dar es salaam use traditional infertility remedies in managing infertility problem. The used remedies contained unknown constituents. Unregulated or inappropriate use of traditional medicines and practices could have negative or dangerous effects. The objective of this study was to assess the dilemmas of using traditional infertility remedies among clients seeking infertility workup in urban Dar es salaam. This was a case study design in which triangulation of methodologies has been used. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies was used. In the qualitative part, in-depth interviews were conducted with Regulatory Authorities, traditional healers and 9 key informants who were purposively selected. A steps model for qualitative data analysis was used. Data were analyzed to generate the qualitative results. While in the quantitative approach, direct observation, questionnaire fillings and snowball technique was used in collecting data from infertile clients. A total of 167 infertile clients aged 18-44 years at 10 health facilities were conveniently selected and interviewed, then the data were analyzed by statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 16.0) From this research it was found that out of 167 infertile couple interviewed, 107(64.1%) have used traditional infertility remedies as a means of fighting the infertility problem from which16(15%) obtained the remedies from relatives (a related person who knew the remedies) while 52(49%) got it from traditional healers and 39(36%) obtained the remedies from both traditional healers and relative .Remedies in form of liquid and powder were the mostly utilized (43.9%) while taboo and piece of paper with Arabic words were least used (1.9%). Statistical significant factor (p-value < 0.05) that influence the use of traditional infertility remedies were Age group, infertility duration and availability of traditional healer .The safety and efficacy of the consumed traditional infertility remedies were of doubtfully. The traditional remedies obtained from neither traditional healer nor relatives were not officially registered hence the infertile client utilize on their own risk. Conclusion and Recommendations The traditional infertility remedies was widely used within the society , Drug Regulatory Authority should advocacy on community awareness on causes and systematic infertility management to protect the public health, Strengthening the Health Policy on the issues of Standardization, Controlling and Monitoring of safety and efficacy of Traditional infertility remedies for future public health to protection is of paramount Moreover Traditional healer and relevant stakeholders(upon their proprietary right) should provide relevant information to the Regulatory Authority based on the plant particularity that are used and claimed for infertility, so that scientific and clinical validation can be applied to prove the safety and effectiveness of a therapeutically product.