Charity provides free IVF treatment for poor infertile couples

HCM City (VNS/VNA) – For four years, and her husband
tried to have a baby. But it was not until the couple received free in vitro
fertilisation (IVF) from a charity programme based in HCM City that their dream
became a reality.

“No words can express what I felt at the time when doctors said that I was
pregnant,” Binh said.

The charity Uom Mam Hanh Phuc (Nurturing Happiness) at My Duc Hospital
in HCM City provided the free IVF treatment to the couple, who were too poor to
pay for it.

“After one year of marriage, we visited an obstetrics hospital and another
specialising in men’s health in HCM City. We were told that my husband’s health
was the problem,” Bình said. “So we returned to our hometown and drank herbs
since that was cheap. But, after one year, then two, and then three, we still
had no child.”

One day, Bình read about the Uom Mam Hanh Phuc programme via social
media and applied for it immediately.

“I was lucky. The programme’s staff called and congratulated me for being
chosen. That was in early 2016. I got pregnant in the first IVF cycle. Now, our
child is 28 months old,” she said.

Binh and her husband are one of 86 couples who have participated in the charity
programme since 2014, when it was founded. Each year, the charity chooses about
30 couples to take part in the programme. 

Dr Nguyen Khanh Linh of My Duc Hospital said the number of couples in the
programme’s 2018-2019 season had increased to 44.

“We feel joy whenever my colleagues and I see success and the couples get
pregnant and a baby is born. This encourages us to continue the programme,”
Linh said.

“I examine many patients who have financial difficulties and can only afford
one or two IVF cycles. If these fail, they cannot continue the procedure
because they can’t pay for it,” she added.

One couple, for example, had tried two unsuccessful cycles, but were forced
to stop because of lack of money. Linh called the wife, and the couple were
chosen for the programme after providing an application. They now have a
child.  
Thus far, the programme has
received 621 applicants in Vietnam, but only 167 of them have been chosen
because of the ’s limited funds.

Most of the funds are donated by My Duc Hospital’s staff and doctors, and
several wealthy couples who have benefited from IVF at the hospital have also
donated funds, with the hope of helping others who are less fortunate. 

Dr Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, known as the “godmother of infertile couples” in the
country and the first person in Vietnam to offer a fertility treatment in which
embryos were introduced directly into the uterus, is Chairwoman of the HCM City
Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Association.

She noted that many people in the country were still poor, “so the cost for
IVF, which is actually lower than in many other countries, is higher than their
income.”

Financial assistance is especially needed because of family pressure and
discriminatory attitudes.

“I’ve worked as an obstetrician and gynaecologist for a long time. I’ve met
couples who could not give birth. Of these, the women suffered a lot. They were
blamed for the infertility. In these cases, the husband’s family often
encouraged him to divorce his wife.

“I always to say to the programme’s doctors that they should do their best and
do not let these couples feel self-pity because they don’t have enough money
for IVF,” Phuong said.

In other countries such as France, health insurance covers the costs for three
IVF cycles, but Vietnam’s health insurance fund does not cover the costs.

Linh said the fund should cover part of the costs and regulate the proportion
of coverage for IVF treatment.    

Other charity programmes to assist poor infertile couples are also being
provided at other hospitals in the country.

After more than 20 years of development, IVF treatment in Vietnam is well known
among many patients and doctors in other countries for its success rate of
nearly 50 percent and its comparably lower costs.

More and more couples from the US, France and other countries as well as
overseas Vietnamese are coming to Vietnam for IVF treatment.

Foreign doctors also visit the country to learn IVF techniques from their
Vietnamese counterparts who perform the world’s most advanced techniques. And
IVF centres in other countries often invite Vietnamese physicians to work and
teach at their centres and hospitals.-VNS/VNA