Africa report
DRC: taboo infertility treated in Kinshasa
Audio 02:17
Dr Chris Katsuv, gynecologist at the Pax Christi clinic, performs an ultrasound on a woman who has had in vitro fertilization 2 © Coralie Pierret / RFI
By: Coralie Pierret
2 mins
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, although the rate of children per woman remains high, infertility remains a concern.
Considered a woman's problem in the past, male infertility is now taken care of in major hospitals across the country.
It is difficult to accurately estimate its rate in the DRC, but having a child is sometimes an obstacle course for some couples and synonymous with rejection for some women.
In Kinshasa, means exist to overcome this.
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Women of all ages are gathered in the waiting room of the Pax Christi clinic.
Young girls who come to donate oocytes, reproductive cells.
And then those who are in their forties, there, in the hope of having a child.
One of them, who wished to remain anonymous, took seven years to become pregnant.
“
I tried, I tried in many ways.
I consulted gynecologists, I followed treatments.
I was diagnosed with endometriosis, after the treatments I was told it would work again.
I tried it, and it didn't work
,” she says.
In the end, only
in vitro
fertilization (IVF), reproduction in the laboratory, worked.
A relief for this forties.
In the DRC, married women without children often suffer humiliation, as this 8-month-pregnant nurse explains.
“
Imagining a childless marriage is hard.
Neighborhood residents, friends, acquaintances know you are married.
The husband's family thinks that the woman had an abortion before being married to their son
,” she says.
So for those who can afford it, IVF costs about $7,000, Dr. Chris Katsuva's clinic is the solution.
In his office, he receives patients who are often worried.
The gynecologist is the first to have developed this technique in the DRC, faced with the observation of increasing infertility.
“We estimate that 30 or 40% of couples in Congo are infertile.
As soon as the woman reaches the age of 40, the percentage of conception per cycle is 3%.
There is also the problem of infections, as well as other illnesses.
On the men's side, the decrease in the quality and quantity of sperm is a serious problem, ”explains the doctor.
Infertility remains a taboo issue in the country, hidden by a high fertility rate.
Congolese women had an average of 4.3 children in 2020, according to the World Bank.
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