Africa-Press – Cape verde. A clinical laboratory technician, Emanuel Moreira plans to soon open his own public service in Palmarejo, Praia, focusing on the diagnosis of male infertility. The idea is to promote men’s sexual and reproductive health, fighting stereotypes and prejudices around this taboo. In addition, as a warning, “Cape Verdean sperm has been decreasing in quality”.
With nearly 10 years of experience in clinical laboratory analyses, Emanuel Moreira, a young man from João Varela, Ribeira Grande de Santiago, is in the process of opening his own service space for this type of demand. Located in Palmarejo, Praia, in addition to normal routine exams and specialized diagnosis, its future clinic will focus on the diagnosis of male infertility.
Yes, despite the prejudice, or precisely because of that, this global problem is something that also increasingly affects the Cape Verdean male population, as our interviewee says (see box).
“All the time I worked in a private laboratory, I developed good relationships with everyone, including my patients. I had one, from the interior, who, in a sperm analysis, discovered that he had azoospermia, total absence of sperm in his ejaculate. Desperate for not having a child with the partner he had lived with for several years, he asked for my help”…
At the time, despite being less experienced, our interviewee says that he was “felt” with the request. “I told him I would try something and went looking for the answers,” he recalls.
To face the challenge at hand, Emanuel Moreira says that he resorted to the techniques of the World Health Organization (WHO), from 2010. “I sent the patient’s results to the doctors and they gave me their feedback”, he recalls. this story that ended up having a happy ending.
Motivated by the results, Moreira decided to continue on this path, in which he ended up seeing the results of his efforts recognized by other colleagues in the sector.
“There was a moment when the urologists called me to thank me for the fact that my exams helped in the diagnosis of their patients. Some even started to recommend patients to come to me, considering that my exams were being useful”.
And that was how, over the years, Moreira would end up developing the idea of MinLab – Clinical Analysis Laboratory, located in Palmarejo, an “ambitious” project that, in the eyes of its promoter. This, in addition to a degree, has a postgraduate degree in Infectious and Tropical Diseases and seeks to stay connected with the outside world, in order to follow the evolution of the sector.
“The idea of opening my own laboratory was born about six years ago. I participated in the Startup Challenge – BIC ideas contest, and my project was among the 10 classified. In this sense, I had access to incubation, after some training necessary for the business area”, says the young man.
Detailed spermogram
For the new mission to which he proposes, through his service clinic, Emanuel Moreira counts on carrying out very detailed spermogram exams, with maximum precision, in order to satisfy his clientele.
“The spermogram, in itself, is a super subjective test, where, in the same patient, it is difficult to have two identical samples. That is, each sample depends on numerous factors, including the person who does it, the method of doing it”.
Furthermore, as far as you are aware, in cases of patients with azoospermia (absence of sperm), “the continuation of the process is not usually done with supplementary tests in Cape Verde”.
“If the patient wants to continue the treatment, to the point of having a more accurate diagnosis, he has to perform a testicular biopsy, which can only be done outside the country. What we want is to eliminate this lack, since not all men in Cape Verde, with reproductive problems, have the financial conditions to travel and continue the exams outside the country”, he justifies.
Fighting stereotypes and promoting male sexual and reproductive health
In addition to laboratory analyses, MinLab has a social aspect that, according to its promoter, Emanuel Moreira, will also serve to help combat the stereotypes linked to masculinity existing in Cape Verde.
“We still have a sexist society in which many men think that the only element of the couple responsible for non-pregnancy is the woman, when this is not true. According to the WHO, infertility is a problem that affects 10 to 15% of the world’s population, thus making it a public health problem”.
And, in this equation, still based on WHO data on infertility, Moreira advances that men are responsible for 30%, women 30%, couples 30% and 10% idiopathic, that is, without apparent causes.
Taking into account his accumulated experience, Moreira reveals that the spermogram, preferably obtained by masturbation, constitutes another obstacle: most of the samples that arrive at the laboratory are the wives who take them.
“Men need to have more courage to do a sperm analysis. There is the constraint, of course, resulting from that moment, in the collection of sperm, but we, as health professionals, are obliged to strict confidentiality, so there is no need to have this type of fear”, he considers.
Lectures and open conversations in communities
Supporting whenever possible the Cape Verdean Association for the Protection of the Family (VerdeFam) in terms of sexual and reproductive health and also being a member of “Laço Branco”, Emanuel Moreira says that the “cause of men” has always motivated him to give the his contribution as a social activist.
Now, through MinLab, he hopes to hold lectures and open conversations in the localities for the promotion of men’s sexual and reproductive health, an area normally neglected by society, as well as by the authorities of the public health sector.
“Many men ignore the functioning of their sexual or reproductive system, they do not even master the care to be taken with their sexual health, this is why this is one of the first issues we want to address with them”, says Emanuel Moreira, who says he has scheduled for the next few days an open conversation on this type of subject with men in the community of Cruz Grande, in the interior of Santa Catarina de Santiago.
Cape Verdean sperm has been decreasing in quality
In Cape Verde, according to Emanuel Moreira, there is still no survey of data on infertility, namely male. However, his professional observation, over ten years old, leads him to conclude that the quality of Cape Verdeans’ sperm has been decreasing; and, increasingly, “young people are falling victim to this problem due to various risk factors”.
Risk factors
The interviewee to A NAÇÃO explains that infertility itself, in this case male, is subject to many risk factors, namely genetic, hormonal, trauma, infections, lifestyles, etc.
“Lifestyle (eg lack of physical exercise) can be considered one of the risk factors for infertility, as well as alcohol and drug use. On the other hand, the use of anabolic steroids by people who attend gyms is also a very risk factor for fertility”, he warns.
Still among the health reasons, Emanuel Moreira points out the Varicocele, a dilatation in the vein that irritates the testicle and that makes the man have less flow and conditions for the sperm to develop.
Apart from the factors mentioned above, our interviewee also points to “idiopathic”, in this case, the cause of infertility is unknown.
precautions
Considering all these “risk factors”, Emanuel Moreira says that precautions must always be taken and that men need to consider their body as “something special”, that is, something that cannot be mistreated or neglected.
“From the moment we consider our body as something special, we start to take better care of it. Men, in this case Cape Verdeans, need to take more care of their health, moreover, at a time when the tendency is to leave ‘fatherhood’ for later, at a time when the human body has already undergone various types of wear. Hence the need to look for health professionals while there is still time”, he concludes.
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