Written By: Dr Anitha Anchan | Updated : April 30, 2013 1:16 PM IST
Thousands of men and women in India are now resorting to fertility treatment to become parents. Figures by the World Health Organisation (WHO) reveal that approximately 13-19 million couples in India are infertile. In every 100 couples, 40% - male factors, 40% -female factors, and 10%- combined factors are the cause of infertility and 10% cases come under unexplained category. So, male factor contributes equally to infertility. The advent of technique of ICSI (Infra Cytoplasmic sperm injection) has served as a boon for men with low sperm count giving a chance to them to father their own child.
Concerned with rising infertility amongst Indian couples, Max Hospital, Pitampura launched the IVF Centre , igniting a ray of hope amongst many couples and understanding the growing demand for assisted reproductive services.
Today, infertility is no longer recognized as only a female problem. In fact, the term infertility is a broad term, often loosely used. It actually refers to a range of disorders which affect both men and women resulting in childlessness in a couple. Infertility is increasingly being linked to increased work stress, hectic and fast paced imbalanced urban lifestyle, environmental toxins and delayed age at marriage.
This newly launched IVF Centre will provide a range of comprehensive infertility management facilities to the couples. In addition to providing the core procedures such as IUI (Intrauterine Insemination), IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) etc., it will also offer globally acknowledged treatment facilities such as assisted hatching, blastocyst culture, ICSI (Infra Cytoplasmic sperm injection) and vitrification. The IVF Centre has a state of art infrastructure supported by latest equipment to provide the best services to the patients for infertility treatment, IVF treatment and assisted reproduction.
Read: Shocking - mother impregnates 14-year-old with donor sperm!
Presently, the field of reproductive medicine is witnessing a paradigm shift. There is an alarming growth of infertility among young Indian women over the last decade. The rising statistics is due to social changes that have been taking place over the past decade-and-a-half. In women, hectic lifestyle and job stress contribute to conception problems. There is also delayed marriage and deferred childbirth among couples which indicates signs of infertility.
The causes of infertility in men are irregular sperm production, hampered sperm delivery due to either erectile dysfunction or early ejaculation, presence of medical conditions such as obesity that may hamper sperm production, certain infections such as Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), and lifestyle conditions such as diet imbalance, addiction to smoking or alcoholism, sedentary existence, or mental and emotional stress, all of which contribute to poor sperm count.
Considering the changing lifestyles, infertility is becoming a problem even for couples in their late twenties. We are regularly receiving a growing number of patients in the age group of 25-32 years old who are complaining of infertility, said Dr Rashmi Sharma, Sr. Consultant- IVF and Reproductive Medicine at Max Hospital, Pitampura.
Earlier, couples believed that IVF is an unnatural way of getting pregnant. However, now there is a marked shift in their perception. This is evident from the rising number of patients for IVF that we have witnessed at the hospital. Earlier IVF used to be a taboo among patients and they used to take a lot of time in deciding about IVF, thinking that IVF is an unnatural way of getting pregnant. However, with changing perceptions, people have also become open towards such treatment options and we have seen consistent rise in patients, she said.
Considering such rising cases of infertility, we felt a need for a specialized IVF Centre addressing all reproductive issues of urban couples, she added.
