IVF (TEST TUBE BABY) BECOMES LESS EXPENSIVE & MORE FRUITFUL

An elderly infertile couple from Cochin, now settled in Kuwait approached me last yr in a desparate situation as they had lost all the hopes in getting a baby. She was 43 & her husband at 52, had all the possible treatments over the last 18 yrs including 4 ivf from abroad. Then they were told to try donor ivf programme.Indeed that also failed & some of their relatives here suggested my name.

As a medical specialist who doesn’t like shortcuts & willing to take challenging cases always gave them a ray hope of 10 to 15% chance. After conditioning their body & mind we started this novel approach of mild stimulation ivf-icsi. With grace of Almighty her ovaries responded to produce 2 good eggs, which were then injected by her husbands sperm. On 4th day one of them had degenerated, probably because of the age ,but one had become a beautiful clean embryo of G1 quality. We fozen that to -197C .The lady was then prepared in a natural cycle for embry transfer in the next month. To make it short she delevered a healthy girl weighing 2800 gm.

Infact this was our first experimental study which prompted us in doing more work in this aspect. Now upto 50 % of our IVF programmes are using this technique.

Dr.C. Mohamed Ashraf, who sticks very hard to medical & social ethical principles is a renouned Laparoscopic Surgeon, IVF Specilaist and a Sonologist with much interest in fetomaternal medicine. He is the Chairman of CRAFT (Centre for Research in Assisted reproduction & fetal Therapy). Its one of the largest fertility center of India with a very dedicated team of experts, now planning to move to other cities & countires with his own brand name the CRAFT, a synonym for our own babies. During the last 18 yrs the team had done more than 30,000 laparcoscopic surgeries & more than 15000 IUI cycles.We entered in the field of ART in 1999, and in a short span of 8 yrs we did 2900 cases with na average delivery rate of 38%.

The new technic of mild stimulation IVF is a research product of Craft.Instead of using costly hormone injections of dose varying form 1750 iu to 4500 iu in one treatment cycle, in this novel method we give only 450 to 800 iu of gonadotropins( about 1/5), ofcours after tuning their body & mind. This reduces the cost by Rs 50,000 to 100,000 ), without affecting the final outcome.Infact what we have seen is a higher preg rate of about 50% than 30% in the conventional methods.

To mention a few advantages of this technic..

1.Use of costly hormone inj is reduced by 20%.
2.The total cost of IVF-ICSI comes down by Rs 50,000 to 1 lak.
3.Less no of inj ,so less side effects if any
4.Better quality of eggs & embryos than in the conventional method
5.Very successful in multiple failed cases as well
6.The deadly complication of OHSS is nil in this method.

The only disadvantage is that the total duration of treatment is extended by one month more as all the embryos are transferred in a natural cycle. Dr Ashraf is presenting his data on this new approach in ISMAAR Conference to be held in London in april, as well as in ESHRE at Barcelona, Spain in july 2008

100% Genuine parentage certificate

Through ART fertility treatments now the Dr can decide or change the parenthood of his embryos with consent or without. This is mainly due to the pressure from elderly couples and is also an easy short cut for Drs to have babies without much efforts. But CRAFT always deines the door for sperm, egg or embryo donation programmes as We see that thsy are the most valuables of all and its our duty to safeguard them once you become our patients.So CRAFT always certifies the genuine parenthood of all the babaies born from here.

HIGHLITES OF CRAFT

1.The states first Video Laparoscopic center (1992)
2. First IUI center of the state
3.First center to do laparoscopic tubal anastomoses
4.First center to do lap.Buch colposuspension
5.first center in India to do a successful lap.cervical circlage
6.States first Pesa Icsi delivery in 2000
7.States first Tesa Icsi delivery in
8.States first Assisted hatching delivery in 2002
9.States first slow freezing delivery in 2003
10.States first Blastocyst pregnancy in 2004
11.States first Vitrification & delivery in 2006
12.Revelutionised the technic of cervical circlage by a new and highly effective method known as Ashrafs stitch.

REPRODUCTIVE MEDICAL TOURISM &INTERNATIONAL SATELLITE CENTERS