By Praise Chinecherem
A Reproductive health expert, Mrs Ijeoma Onuorah has dismissed as false claims that family planning or use of contraceptives could cause cancers.
Onuorah rather asserted that family planning rather prevents the risk of cancers.
She spoke on Friday at the 2023 edition of the International Day of Families, themed: ‘Demographic Trends and Families’, organised by Anambra State Ministry of Health in collaboration with Ministry of Women and Social Welfare.
The International Day of Families marked every May 15, was established to raise awareness about the importance of families and to promote the role of families in society.
The expert urged families to adopt family planning methods as they were safe and beneficial to the health and wellbeing of the family and the society at large.
She said, “There are lots of misconceptions and myths which are preventing families from embracing family planning methods and this has led to deaths of many women.
“There has been no evidence that family planning causes cancer, rather it reduces the risk of cancers.
“The benefits of family planning include longer spacing between pregnancies, preventing unplanned pregnancies, and improved survival rates of infants and children as there will be more time for quality parenting and care.”
While urging women to go through proper tests by medical experts to ascertain the family planning method which would be suitable for them, Onuorah argued that young women within reproductive age have little or nothing to fear about the use of contraceptives for prevention of pregnancy.
“Young girls who are sexually active also need family planning to prevent pregnancies rather than taking concoctions that could be harmful to their health,” she added.
