When couples are trying to conceive without success, some members of the soci ­ety mount pressure on the helpless pair because they feel the couple is not serious with making efforts to have children.

It is, therefore, common to have such “concerned people” call them (the couple) names and even try to restrict them on how to dress, even what to eat and also those to asso ­ciate with. Women are usually at the receiving end of this ill-treat ­ment aimed at compelling them to have children.

In an interview with The Spectator on Monday, a Public Health Practi­tioner, Dr. Owusu Yankyera, said it was about time the cultural settings appreciated that children were a gift from God through the male and female not only through the female.

“Society must understand that under certain circumstances, pres­sure mounted on childless couples is enough to increase the psychological problem that worsens their state,” he said.

He said stigmatisation was, there ­fore, a harmful means of forcing couple to have children because a good mental health was important for such couples.

Dr. Yankyera said, instead of mak ­ing life unbearable for such couples society should rather provide support and encouragement to childless cou ­ples since that period was challeng ­ing for them.

He suggested that there should be a friendly approach to childless cou ­ples in harmonising a society where there were inequalities in fertility.

The Public Health Practitioner who is also the Head of Standard Setting, Verification and Accreditation at the Traditional Medicine Practice Council said it was about time society under ­stood that the causes of infertility may emanate from both male and female.

“It is untrue that all cases of infer ­tility are because females are bar ­ren. This is the reason many a time the burden of seeking child birth is left on the woman,” he said.

According to him, some factors associated with male infertility were semen disorders, sexual problems, genetic defects, disorders in the tes ­tes, systemic diseases and prolifera ­tion of abnormal or immature sperms among others.

Dr. Yankyera said it was important that both partners showed equal and cooperative desires and efforts to address the issue of childlessness instead of putting the entire blame on women.

 From Dzifa Tetteh Tay, Tema