Jipmer’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, has set up an In-Vitro Fertilisation laboratory. The institute’s director S.C. Parija commissioned the lab.
The lab was under construction as per ICMR guidelines over the past year and the services will be open to public soon, Dr. Parija said.
According to a Jipmer press note, assisted reproductive services aim to offer In-Vitro Fertilisation, Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) for infertile couples who fail to conceive after ovulation induction and intrauterine insemination (IUI).
It offers a ray of hope for the poor families who cannot afford these methods which cost anywhere between ₹1.5 to 2 lakh per cycle.
Dr. Parija is planning to allocate separate budget so that poor families (below poverty line) will be getting the services partly free of cost. The facility is expected to be a boon for cancer patients who are young and adolescents as their fertility can be preserved by semen banking and egg banking or ovarian tissue cryo preservation (frozen) which will be done before starting chemotherapy and radiotherapy and also during surgery for early stage cancer of genital tract.
They can be treated with techniques to transfer the cryopreserved tissue back to the body once they are cured of cancer and when they are planning to have a child A dedicated team of gynaecologists have already been trained and embryologists will be recruited soon . The consumables and drugs would be of those It is also proposed to establish a separate division of reproductive medicine soon to sustain the programme in future.
Deputy director (admin) Dr. D.K. Patro, head, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dr. Dasari Papa and other dignitaries, faculty and staff participated.