Health

Infertility can stop humanity on the verge of extinction

• Bookmarks: 8 • Comments: 214


Reproductive medicine industry is a big business but what are emotional, physical and financial expenses of infertile couples?

Infertility can stop humanity on the verge of extinction. It sounds as a new movie trailer but it is reality. Every 5th couple in the world these days is unable to reproduce. 21st century and infertile human race are battling to survive with a huge hope for a chance and new life. Regular reports of international medical organizations and committees claim that infertility gains pace all over the world. And there are more and more reproductive medicine clinics. Their advertisement is more common now than Starbucks ads.

But what is the reality, and how far can people go with aims to conceive and give birth to a baby?

Statistics of national health protection services say that in Great Britain every sixth couple is infertile. In Italy and USA the situation is quite the same. Qatar’s statistics claims that 16% of couples are infertile. In India, around 30 million of families are infertile. It makes up 10% of population. Every European country shows similar unpromising statistics. Nowadays, citizens of such developed countries as Germany, France, Italy, Spain, England and many others, widely use benefits of modern medicine and assisted reproductive technologies.

Human life is priceless. However, as a result of global infertility, the sphere of assisted reproductive technologies is developing rapidly. Millions of families are eager to pay any money for at least a chance of becoming parents.

Dina’s case (feigned name) is not unique. Dina is a popular interior designer in Italy. She is happily married. Her husband is a successful businessman. Back 13 years ago when they married, they were happy and full of hope. They had everything they wanted: good jobs in Italy, wonderful house, cars and travelling. They have it all. But for children.

“I was 38 and we wanted to have a complete family with children so much. We visited our local doctor to find out what was wrong. Doctor said that my husband had problems.

He suggested trying artificial insemination procedure. We did it twice and nothing worked. Nothing at all” says Dina.

“My doctor advised us to proceed with IVF. I was absolutely sure that it will be a perfect solution for us”

In Dina’s case, her husband’s semen analysis showed not very good result. Doctor suggested fertilization of Dina’s eggs with her husband’s sperm in lab environment and then transfer embryo back to Dina’s uterus. This is in vitro fertilization procedure or IVF. Of course, Dina agreed. They visited a lot of clinics. It was a long IVF journey. Clinics in Florida, Doha, Jordan, Bahrain and finally New York and Crete tried to help them. All IVF attempts were unsuccessful. They were successful only in spending money. This family spent around 150 thousand dollars and still had no result.

Like most women opting to conceive through IVF, Dina was to go through several cycles of treatment. In general, a woman goes through 2-3 cycles and this is money consuming. Moreover, they had to cover expenses for air tickets, accommodation, meals and other related expenses.

ART procedures result is a long-awaited baby. That’s why many people are ready to spend any money for the sake of their future. It’s a perfect impetus for “fraud clinics” to emerge. They may lie to patients and just imitate performing of all necessary procedures of the program.

“Some desperate infertile couples are ready to pay big sums of money for infertility treatment.  It leads to exploitation and using such patients only with aim of making money” IVF expert says.

Such patients like Dina and her husband are ready to pay thousands of dollars for ART treatments. It gives rise to severe competition between clinics, fight for patients.

Patients’ competition is a concern only for those who are afraid that doctors will apply risky medical practices to enhance pregnancy rate, or that clinics will hoodwink their patients as to their chances for successful conception.

Professor of an American university considers that nowadays doctors have reached high proficiency in using assisted reproductive technologies. Specialists are always working on improving treatment methods and their practical application. And years of practice help enhancing programs’ success rate.

Nowadays there are so many centers of reproductive medicine. This is unregulated free market of medical service and it’s impossible to count the exact number of clinics. Alongside with state-run medical establishments, there is a great number of private clinics and centers. They are very popular among infertile couples. Thus, for example, around 120 thousand IVF cycles are performed in American clinics per year. In Ukraine – around 90 thousands. These data is very approximate because there is no exact statistics in any country of the world. There are a lot of clinics worldwide and they all offer similar service for different prices.

Sarah was trying to get pregnant during five years and says that she contacted reproductive medicine clinics opting to get ART treatment.

 “Yes, the cost of IVF with donor eggs depends on countries and clinics. However, infertile couples struggling to have children find hope and faith in such clinics. I can tell you from my own experience that this hope is enough to pay this money”, says a patient.

The price is the reason why infertile couples go overseas to have IVF there. The treatment may be rather expensive especially if it’s needed to provide additional procedures: ICSI, PGD, donor eggs and donor sperm usage. Don’t forget that going to another country involves flight, accommodation and food expenses after all. One IVF cycle in the USA costs USD 12 000 – 14 000 and it’s the most expensive destination for reproductive tourism. The prices of reproductive services in the developing markets fall in such countries: Turkey (USD 5000), Argentina (USD 4900), Ukraine (USD 3000), and Georgia (USD 4000).

Experts say that people will spend money on ART because it’s the only sphere infertile couples can invest in. ART is an expensive business not only financially but emotionally.

Hannah is 39 and she is infertile. She thinks that time, money, and efforts spent on her attempts to become pregnant by using IVF were worth it.

“It was a dream and, at the same time, the pain of my life. I wanted to have children but I couldn’t. Having contacted Ukrainian clinic I found a hope and believed I would be a mother. I had my egg donor matched in BioTexCom clinic. I became pregnant from the first IVF cycle”, says Hannah.

It is well known that many women have their first babies or decide to have one more kid when they are golden-agers. Doctors say that there is a great number of women after 36-45 who come to reproductive centers to have IVF. There are also women who can’t become pregnant because of different diseases and disabilities.

Some people are obsessed with procreation idea and their child is the one who will carry family values, goals and genes.

“Most couples are ready to make sacrifices in order to have children”, says fertility specialist. “Reproduction and parenting is an instinctive mechanism of all people. Assisted Reproductive Technologies is not a traditional method of conception, however it’s a unique alternative for infertile people”.

The number of fertility clinics and ART is increasing, as treatment methods are improved and programs become more effective. Infertile couples are ready to pay for these procedures and pass through emotional and psychological aspects of such programs.

“To be honest, going all this way wasn’t easy mentally. A thought of my baby having genes of another woman made me crazy. But then I realized that the most important is that we are loving parents and we will be very responsible and raise a child. We spent around 10 000 euro in Ukraine. It was a package with unlimited number of attempts. This price included everything we needed: accommodation, alimentation, medication, egg donor selection, etc. We don’t regret we spent this money. Now we have a child and it’s number one. This child is worth all the efforts, money and time spent on making our dream of family come true. We put our trust on experienced Ukrainian doctors and we don’t grudge of it”, says Hannah.

Very often it’s in patients’ hands, as doctors say. Regular medical examinations, healthy lifestyle, lack of bad habits, diet, rest-activity balance are crucial for reproductive health. “Every man and every woman must care and improve their health state and the quality of their eggs, ovaries, uterus, and sperm from youth and throughout their lives”, the doctor says.

For those who have health issues IVF is the best option. Popularity of ART is growing year by year. People from different countries, who were thought to be infertile, become parents with increasing frequency. According to statistics, 300,000 – 350,000 babies see this world annually by using ART.

Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) is now a widespread technology as a counter of IVF. According to expert opinion, it’s because of more and more men are less ashamed of acknowledging and fighting their fertility problems.

ICSI is used when problems occur primarily in men. If man’s sperm count is low, doctors inject a single sperm directly into an egg by using special micromanipulators.

During an IVF program fertilization is made out of woman’s body (extracorporal fertilization). The procedure consists of such steps: doctors stimulate ovulation, collect eggs, fertilize eggs with sperm in laboratory environment, and then place embryos into the uterus of female.

As you can see modern medicine offers different options for serving the needs of people. Apparently, a Ukrainian clinic’s motto, “There is no absolute infertility”, has become reality.

8 recommended
comments icon214 comments
214 notes
181 views
bookmark icon

214 thoughts on “Infertility can stop humanity on the verge of extinction

    Leave a Reply to kittikat Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Oldest
    Newest
    Most Upvoted