Postgraduate student Marriana Shepherd has begun a fertility pharmacology study looking at the use and effects of herbs and herbal cocktails on the management of key reproductive challenges in women. She entered The UWI, Cave Hill Pharmacology programme hoping to add to the growing body of research on the treatment of infertility issues in women.
The study specifically focuses on polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) as this has been identified as the leading cause of female infertility and a precursor to other serious medical conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and endometrial cancer. In her preliminary observations, Shepherd noted several biomarkers that are cause for concern, including hirsutism, acne, menstrual disorders, multiple metabolism issues, and insulin resistance in younger people.
Due to the multiple heterogeneous factors that characterise PCOS, it is treated on a symptom-by-symptom basis, and as such, there is not yet a specific cure for the syndrome.
Suffering from this reproductive disorder herself and with little success using existing medicine, Shepherd became interested in the use of herbs to assist with her own treatment. While supplementing her medication with the use of several herbs, she began to notice improvements. This sparked her determination to explore the use of herbs in the management of PCOS, as she embarked on her postgraduate studies. She chose herbs already well supported in literature and is observing the effects of multiple herbs or herbal cocktails to assist in this reproductive disorder.
The initial study is using PCOS-induced female Sprague Dawley rats to determine the effects of these herbal cocktails on key indicators, such as the KNDy neuropeptides and reproductive hormones. Coming out of the study, Shepherd hopes to identify multiple herbs to assist in the management of PCOS while also giving some insight into the declining birth rate in Barbados.
Barbados’s birth and fertility rates have declined continuously since the 1960s, reaching below replacement levels in the 1980s. The island’s ageing population has also become a cause of concern, as a declining labour force will burden the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
In 2014, former Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Ronald Jones urged women to be more reproductive. He argued that the population needed to increase to approximately 325,000 by 2024 to increase the number of individuals in the workforce so the island's standard of living would not be compromised.
His concern was later echoed in 2020 by current Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley in an address to the nation, when she stated that the current population had serious implications for stability of the country's revenue, the social security scheme, and the quality of life of its citizens.