Aetiological pattern of infertility cases managed at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital in Ilorin, North-Central Nigeria: a 3-year retrospective study

OBJECTIVE: The aetiological pattern of infertility in most African countries appeared to differ from that in developed countries. The aim of this study was to identify significant causes of infertility among infertile women attending the gynaecological clinics of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a hospital-based retrospective cross-sectional study of infertility cases managed at the gynaecology clinics of the hospital between 2016 and 2018. A total of 797 infertile women were recruited for the study. Aetiologic factors and patterns of infertility data were extracted from the participants' case files. Chi-square test of association and logistic regression analyses were done to assess the significant association between studied aetiological factors and the pattern of infertility among them. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 32.9 ± 6 years. About a third of the participants had at least one form of menstrual disorder (35%), and fewer of them had PID (20.8%), obesity (14.2%), and hypertension (3.6%). More than half of them were with male partners with abnormal seminal fluid analysis results (55%). Regression analysis revealed that the most significant aetiological factor for the type of infertility among the patients studied was history of having had dilatation and curettage procedure (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The predominant aetiologic factor in the study was male factor infertility with more than half of the women married to men with abnormal seminal fluid parameters. This finding underscores the growing significance of male factor in the aetiology of infertility among Nigerian women.