Interested in IVF?

THEY’RE STILL very, very small people, but director and choreographer Farah Khan’s triplets are in the centre of a worldwide controversy about multiple births through IVF or In Vitro Fertility.

IVF is an assisted reproductive technology for women who find it difficult to conceive, usually older women. According to Dr Shivani Sachdev Gour, gynaecologist at SCI Healthcare, Delhi, a woman who turns to IVF is given a hormonal injection to stimulate her ovulation and produce more eggs. After a small surgical procedure, the eggs are collected and are mixed with sperm in a petri dish to form an embryo. The embryos are then transferred to the patient’s uterus in the hope of establishing a successful pregnancy.

Because there is only a 35 to 40 per cent chance that the pregnancy will be successful, doctors tend to implant several fertilized eggs in the womb. This is why IVF has become associated with multiple births.

“In India, we put three embryos on an average in the womb to increase the chances of pregnancy,” says Dr Sachdev. “Since the process costs more that Rs one lakh per cycle, we would really like to give couples a chance to conceive.”

The risks in an IVF pregnancy run very high. “Most women who choose to be fertilised this way are over 35, and already beginning to show signs of some lifestyle disease or the other-diabetes, hypertension, excessive stress and so on,” says Dr Sachdev. “So the mother and child have to be constantly monitored.”

 A decade ago in the US, multiple pregnancies through IVF had reached a peak of almost 62 per cent. Now the new rules of foetal reduction ensure that only two embryos are put in the womb. The decision to put one of those embryos to sleep is up to the doctor. “But in India there is no such law as yet,” says Dr Sachdev. “Doctors can put up to four embryos in the womb, because at the end of the day, everyone really wants their own child.”