This joint initiative between Dr Kamini Rao of BACC Healthcare & Dr Rehan Sayeed of Motherhood offers a complete range of infertility management solutions. The facility has latest medical infrastructure including a full fledged embryology lab, operation theatre, ultra sound machines, recovery wards etc apart from well trained and experienced doctors in this field to address the complete infertility management process.
The societal trends of late marriages, increasingly stressful lifestyles and postponing parenthood, i.e. delaying pregnancy until one's 30, well past a woman's biological fertility peak, has definitely led to an increase in infertility. Coupled with increase in disposable incomes of the growing middle class population, the trend has led to an increased spending on healthcare treatments including ART. Most importantly the stigma attached to infertility is definitely on the decline. People are willing to come out in the open about it ... amply demonstrated recently by a film personality.
Dr Kamini Rao, India’s leading infertility specialist who has recently won the most prestigious award called FIGO award and Medical Director, BACC Healthcare said, “We are pleased to be associated with Motherhood and expand our foot prints to this new centre. This facility will continue the tradition of BACC Healthcare in extending its time tested and proven infertility treatments to couples who will need the treatment in an efficient and ethical manner.”
Dr. Rehan Sayeed, Chairman, Rhea Healthcare reiterated the need of such specialized centers to assist couples with infertility treatment & management. He said, "I firmly believe that the coming together of Rhea Healthcare with Dr. Kamini Rao whose expertise along with her credible success rate, will provide ethical and expert care to couples in need of infertility treatment.”
While commenting on the infertility clinics competition, Dr Kamini Rao said “Because of the extreme societal pressures in India couples have been known to go to any extent to bear a child, and there is an awareness and an increasing demand for newer treatment options. Consequently, clinics offering ART have mushroomed not only in Bangalore but all over India. In the absence of a National Registry, the number of infertility clinics offering ART is not known, and the quality of services and success rates at these clinics is anybody's guess. However at this juncture, I would like to emphasize on the role that competition could play in driving down costs and prices, hence improving both access and the quality of care. “
On the technological front as to how Parenthood is different from other centres, Dr Kamini Rao said “Parenthood is a state of the art IVF Centre set up with cutting edge technology to improve clinical outcomes. The Centre has the latest equipment necessary for an IVF laboratory with incubators, microscope stations, laminar flow hoods for gamete handling, a laser for assisted hatching and micromanipulation stations for ICSI or PGD. The culture environment of the embryo is carefully regulated through a specially designed air system. The modular stainless steel IVF Lab is possibly the first of its kind in Bangalore.
Further commenting on the new technological advances, Dr Kamini Rao said, “We have recently introduced gamete cryopreservation which is a boon to cancer patients giving them an opportunity to freeze their gametes (sperm or eggs) prior to the initiation of cancer therapy and thus gives patients diagnosed with cancer the potential to have a child in the future. Too often, this service is not considered until the patient is well into cancer treatment and by then, it may be too late.”
Dr Kamini Rao further said, “Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis is still in a very nascent stage in India. It has been a long standing dream of mine to introduce this technology at my centers. PGD is used where a couple is aware of the possibility that their offspring will inherit a genetic disease. The most common type of PGD today involves testing of embryos for a panel of the most common chromosome abnormalities and using only normal embryos to attempt a pregnancy. Each IVF cycle, therefore, has a better potential outcome, since embryos screened in this way have been shown to have a higher rate of implantation in the uterus and a reduced risk of genetic abnormalities. Very soon it will be common place for a couple at risk of having a child with a serious genetic disease to avoid it by having the embryo screened prior to implantation. “
While elaborating on the support from the Government expected, Dr Kamini Rao said, “The fact remains that Infertility treatment can be extremely expensive. I would strongly advocate the setting up of ART Clinics in the public sector. The Government could also explore the possibility of requesting well-established ART clinics that are willing to serve the weaker sections at cost price that would be met by the Government. The Govt of Karnataka recently in a path breaking decision, decided to treat infertility as an ailment and will reimburse medical expenses upto Rs 65,000/- for its treatment. Reimbursement of expenses incurred on IVF will be allowed up to a maximum of three fresh cycles. This is indeed a giant leap forward for the infertile population. It is my sincere hope that insurance companies and TPAs will also follow suit.”
Speaking on the infertility market, Dr Rehan Sayeed said, “Approximately 30 mn couples in India are infertile out of which 6 mn couples in India need to undergo advanced infertility treatments like IVF, ICSI, egg donation or surrogacy. The Indian Infertility market was estimated at approx $ 337 mn. in FY 2010, with In-Vitro Fertilization contributing 71%. India has become a booming infertility market, with its reproductive tourism industry reportedly estimated at $ 5 bn. The Infertility Market is expected to reach $ 2.8 bn in the next 10 years from the present size of US$ 0.34 bn, growing at a CAGR of 24%. Currently, 90% of the market is still dominated by unorganized players. There are very few single large players and while large clinics achieve more than 500 IVF cycles per year, the smaller ones probably do about 30 IVF cycles per year. Presently, most infertility facilities are more of nursing homes with approximately10-50 beds that are owned and managed by a single doctor. “
Speaking on the Vision 2020 for Parenthood, Dr Rehan Sayeed said, “Like all sectors infertility too is heading towards corporatization. The advent of medical tourism is a key factor contributing to the growth and development of the Indian Healthcare sector and India has been attracting medical tourists by leveraging a significant cost advantage with quality of treatment being at par with European and American countries. I envision that Parenthood with its upscale facilities will be a key player in the reproductive tourism industry. We have already been getting a large number of enquiries from African countries. Infact, at BACC we have a steady trickle of patients from Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Kenya, Mauritius, etc. as well as NRIs from all over. “
As part of the launch of Parenthood, Indiranagar, and interactive lecture sessions with experts is being organised at Hotel Capitol, Rajbhavan Road, on 3rd Feb 2013, in which renowned professionals such as Dr B S Ramamurthy, Director, Srinivasa Scanning centre, Dr Rakesh Sinha, Former President IAGE and Dr Kamini Rao are speaking. The sessions will be chaired by Dr Hema Divakar, President, FOGSI and Dr Vidya Bhat, President, BSOG.
