Abortion rates are up in Vietnam and fertility rates are down, yet some medical professionals claim there is no link between the two.
The Vietnam News Agency reports medical professionals recently met at the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology conference in Hanoi to discuss the country’s growing infertility crisis.
The infertility rate is at 8 percent in Vietnam, one of lowest rates in the Asian Pacific, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). That equates to 1 million couples struggling to conceive a child, and the crisis is expected to grow worse in the next few years.
WHO lists infertility as the third most dangerous health problem in the world, due to the effects of childlessness on relationships, society and the economy, according to the report.
Here’s more from the report:
At the conference, participants heard that the age of people suffering from infertility is gradually getting younger. The causes and solutions are complicated, putting a great deal of pressure on sufferers and their doctors.
Among the one million infertile Vietnamese couples, 50 percent are under the age of 30.
The National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s Infertility Department reported that 10 years ago, the department only received two to three couples per day with problems related to infertility. In 2015, the number had increased 20 times.
A health expert on infertility said the problem could stem from a variety of stressors, depression and individuals’ anxiety.
Though the report points out that the rate of abortions among teenagers in Vietnam also is very high, it dismissed any possible link between infertility and so-called “safe” abortions.
Young adults who want to hide a pregnancy often “will turn to unsafe or unlicenced [abortion] practitioners, where one of the complications they may face is infertility. Studies show that abortions performed by doctors in safe, regulated facilities are not linked to infertility,” the report states.
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However, several studies have found a link between abortions and increased infertility risks.
A 1986 study “Post-Abortal Endometritis and Isolation of Chlamydia Trachomatis,” published in the medical journal Obstetrics and Gynecology found that not only is it possible to contract endometritis from an abortion, but also that the risk is higher for teenagers. According to the study, teenagers are 2.5 times more likely than women 20-29 to acquire endometritis following an abortion.
In a factsheet “Abortion: Questions and Answers” prepared by the Planned Parenthood of Edmonton, Canada for prospective patients, the abortion business also acknowledged the risk.
“Infections can occur from an abortion,” the factsheet states. “At worst the infection can become a case of endometriosis (the pelvic area becomes inflamed) and the uterus has to be removed surgically.”
A number of studies also have linked abortions to increased risks of future preterm births and miscarriages. One 2006 British study found that women who have an abortion run at a 60-percent higher risk of having a miscarriage in a subsequent pregnancy, LifeNews previously reported.
In 2014, Life Issues Institute shared the heartbreaking stories of several post-abortive women who were unable to have more children after their abortions. They deserved to know about potential abortion risks; instead, they experienced double the heartbreak knowing that the only children who they ever conceived were aborted.
