An upcoming centre at SSKM Hospital promises to make infertility treatment accessible for all.
A centre of excellence in IVF-ART is scheduled to come up within the Institute for Post-graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER) & SSKM Hospital, said a doctor involved with the project.
IVF means in vitro fertilisation and ART stands for assisted reproductive technology. The segment is largely confined to the private sector and is therefore unaffordable for many.
The Ghosh Dastidar Institute for Fertility Research (GDIFR) is the knowledge partner for this joint venture that would provide free treatment to all.
An outpatient department wing of the centre, operational from May 2022, has been attending to between 500 and 1000 patients every month.
“The proposed centre will function as the nodal centre and serve patients at government hospitals all over the state in a hub-and-spoke model in accordance with the Bengal government’s free universal healthcare vision. A laboratory, central to the project, is being set up. The centre should be ready by the end of this year,” said Sudarsan Ghosh Dastidar, director of GDIFR and the proposed centre.
IVF is the process of fertilisation by manually combining an egg and a sperm in a laboratory dish and then transferring the embryo to the uterus.
The cost of a single cycle of IVF varies between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh at various private fertility clinics in the city, said several doctors involved in IVF.
Since the success rate of live births varies between 40 and 60 per cent, more than one cycle is often needed, they said.
“Cost is the main reason why many people cannot afford IVF. Once the proposed centre is ready, more people will be able to get IVF treatment,” said Biswanath Ghosh Dastidar, faculty at the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at IPGMER and also
involved in the proposed
centre.
The centre would also train obstetrics and gynaecology specialists from all over the state in IVF-ART for technical skill and capacity development within the government sector, he said.
“We have been treating between 500 and 1,000 patients in the OPD every month. In several cases, we have been able to achieve pregnancy by ovulation induction treatment (which uses hormonal therapy to stimulate egg development and release, or ovulation). But for IVF, a sophisticated lab is needed,” said Biswanath Ghosh Dastidar, who received training in infertility-IVF in the UK.
The rate of infertility in married couples is on the rise, experts said.
“From around 10 per cent a few years ago, it now ranges between 18 and 20 per cent. More and more people are opting for IVF treatment,” said Ratna Chattopadhyay, chief embryologist at the Institute of Reproductive Medicine, founded by Baidyanath Chakravarty, one of the pioneers of IVF in India, who passed away last year.
The demand has led to the mushrooming of IVF clinics around the city.
A report by Allied Market Research valued the Indian IVF market size at $793.27 million in 2020. It was projected to scale up to $3.72 billion by
2030.
An IVF clinic was supposed to have come up at the SSKM hospital’s gynaecology building, under the leadership of fertility expert Gautam Khastgir, in 2015. But the project did not reach fruition.
“Any expensive treatment becomes accessible for all if it is provided from a government hospital. I welcome the new centre. It should be helpful for a lot of people,” Khastgir told Metro on Sunday.
