Healthcare in India

On October 3, 1978, due to the pioneering effort of Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay and his team in Calcutta, a girl—Durga—was born through IVF. It was the second such attempt in the world, a repeat of what his English counterparts Robert G Edwards and Patrick Steptoe had achieved barely days ago, on July 25. The news boded well for thousands of infertile couples, but there was no noise around the achievement. Perhaps because the couple chose to keep mum and didn’t want themselves or the child’s image to be shaped by the manner of conception. Battling ignominy and failure to be recognised for his monumental work led him to take his life on June 19, 1981. But recognition did come his way, posthumously, and 25 years after the birth of Durga, the physician was “officially” regarded as the first doctor to perform IVF in India. Later on August 6, 1986, Dr Indira Hinduja and Dr Kusum Zaveri helped deliver—Harsha—India’s first test tube baby.

 

Now, State-of-the-art-technologies are making their parenthood dream of many come true

 

A latest Ernst & Young (E&Y) report records high prevalence of infertility affecting nearly 10-15 percent of married couples in India, of which women account for 40-50 percent. Infertility attributable to male factors is on the rise and constitutes 30-40 percent of the segment.

 

Only 1 percent of infertile couples in India seek treatment, says the E&Y report. It highlights the rise in the population of women in reproductive age (20-44). This proportion could go up by 14 percent between 2010 and 2020. The climb is skewed towards women aged between 30 and 44 (20 percent increase estimated between 2010 and 2020), who typically display lower fertility rates. This shifting demographic trend coupled with rising contraceptive use is likely to scale up infertility rates in India.
Age has an important part to play in conception.

 

Tech to Rescue

The fertility treatment landscape has drastically improved over the years. The services at a fertility centre range from the simplest that involves IUI to the most advanced ones such as IVF,
IMSI (intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection), ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection) and PICSI (a new method of sperm selection for ICSI).Today any IVF specialist is lucky to possess the latest techniques to combat the disadvantage of advanced maternal age, prevent unnecessary transfer of embryos, prevent and reduce implantation failure and give quick results. 

 

Performing genetic diagnosis prior to embryo implantation could prevent abnormal pregnancies. Various categories of hopeful mothers are advised this screening method. They are:

1. Women who suffered repeated implantation failure or recurrent pregnancy loss while undergoing IVF
2. Patients aged 35 years
3. Women with recurrent miscarriages after IVF
4. Women with a positive history of chromosomal aneuploidies in the family or are diagnosed carriers of chromosomal abnormalities
5. Or have a combination of some of the above factors

 

read more at http://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/2018/sep/30/the-great-baby-race-1878013.html