Indian Clinics Woo Fertility Tourists

Indian clinics woo "fertility" tourists as medical travel booms:

"We are actively recruiting egg donors!" reads the advertisement on the website of one of India's top in-vitro fertilisation clinics.
"Our patients are happy to pay generously for your generosity! They pay you up to rupees 40,000 (800 dollars) every time you donate".
A lack of regulation surrounding fertility services in India and the lucrative returns on offer to those that provide them has turned India into a popular hub of "IVF tourism".

Childless couples from overseas are attracted by the relatively low-cost treatment, as well as "friendly rules" when it comes to egg donors and surrogate motherhood.

According to the private Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction (ISAR), there are some 400 IVF clinics in the country, providing an estimated 30,000 assisted reproductive treatments a year.
There are no precise estimates for what percentage are taken up by foreigners, but doctors say overseas demand is fuelling a boom.
"Nearly half of our patients come from overseas. Of them, nearly half are of Indian origin," said Aniruddha Malpani, whose IVF clinic in Mumbai is considered among the country's best.

A full IVF cycle at the Malpani clinic costs 4,500 dollars, including medicines. In the United States, the average cost is 12,400 dollars, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
Malpani offers a top-end service, but the same treatment is available from other Indian clinics at less than half the price.
While cost is a big factor in drawing people from abroad, equally important is the lack of effective regulation.

"India has friendly rules. There are no restrictions on egg donation," said Manish Banker, vice president of the ISAR.
In Britain, the British Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has outlawed payments to surrogates and British IVF clinics allow doctors to implant only two embryos into the uterus in a treatment.
In India, five implants are allowed, substantially increasing the chances of pregnancy, and there is no shortage of egg donors.
"Attitudes towards egg donation are changing fast. Thirty years ago, Indians would balk at the idea of donating blood to a stranger, but now they don't," said Malpani.

A majority of Indian egg donors are housewives who are paid between 6,000 and 40,000 rupees (120-800 dollars), depending on their education level. Many of the women come from poor families.
Among the foreigners seeking fertility services in India, a good number are couples of Indian origin who come home to look for an Indian donor.
"Having a baby is an emotional issue," said Malpani, who runs the clinic with his wife Anjali.
"These people should be called reproductive exiles, not reproductive tourists. No one likes to travel for medical treatment," he said.
Critics, however, say the absence of regulation poses health dangers, as well as ethical issues about "rent-a-womb" exploitation.
"This business is like any other outsourcing industry. The only difference is the treatment offered here is very poor," said Puneet Bedi, a specialist in foetal medicine at New Delhi's Apollo hospital.
"Doctors here take short cuts, they implant more embryos than needed which multiplies risk to the mother."

A draft bill on assisted reproduction has been drawn up and is expected to be tabled in parliament soon, but women's health activists argue that it is aimed more at promoting a lucrative business than addressing health and ethical concerns.
"It was getting embarrassing for the government to keep saying there is no law in the country, so they had to come up with something," Bedi said.
On the back of a booming industry, medical companies have launched special deals that offer a range of health and travel services targeted at foreigners.
Right from arranging the medical visa -- which was introduced three years ago to boost medical outsourcing -- to providing recuperation holidays, companies like Mumbai-based Forerunners and Delhi's Life Smile take care of all requirements.
"Most people who come to us, especially for IVF, go in for a travel package too, since they have come all the way to India," said Kamal Parpyani, managing director of health tourism company Life Smile.
According to a 2004 study, India could earn as much as two billion dollars annually by 2012 through medical tourism, including from fertility services for overseas patients.
Doctors say Indians will benefit not just from the revenue, but also a reduction in the cost of expensive treatments as demand and competition grows.
"It's a market economy. The bad doctors will be weeded out and benefits will trickle down to people in smaller towns," Malpani said.
SOURCE: Agence France Presse

IVF doctor: Patients view him with awe but rivals are less impressed

IVF doctor: Patients view him with awe but rivals are less impressed

He is Britain's most successful IVF doctor with a live birth rate twice the national average and a fortune founded on enabling women to have children, sometimes after years of fruitless treatment in other clinics.
But Mohammed Taranissi is also one of the most controversial, constantly pushing against the rules for fertility treatment and provoking the wrath of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). His rows with the regulator may have undermined his reputation but some, such as IVF pioneer Lord Winston, believe the publicity they have attracted has raised his profile.
Creating babies is as close as most doctors come to playing God and the Egypt-born specialist is viewed by his patients, many desperate, with something close to awe. He has regularly topped the league table of IVF clinics with a live birth rate of 60.7 per cent for women under 35 in 2007, 17 per cent ahead of his nearest rival.
What is his secret? Dr Taranissi says it is about being on duty 24 hours a day so each stage of the IVF process can be carried out at the right time. Rivals claim his results are achieved by cherry-picking the healthiest patients, a charge he rejects.
A more substantive criticism is that he transfers multiple embryos to improve the chances of at least one implanting in the womb. His two London clinics had the third and fourth-highest multiple birth rates at 33 and 32 per cent.
A twin or triplet birth increases risks for mother and babies as well as imposing a burden on the parents and the HFEA has set targets to reduce it. But Dr Taranissi argues this decision should be left to clinicians and their patients.
IVF treatment attracts some of the biggest personalities in medicine and brings huge rewards – Dr Taranissi's fortune was once estimated at £38m.
The HFEA has stumbled badly in its dealings with Dr Taranissi. Two years ago, it ordered a police raid on one of his clinics which he was suspected of operating without a licence – while at the same time contributing to a BBC Panorama investigation of the doctor screened on the day as the raids.
The incident drew charges of "trial by television" and led Dr Taranissi to launch a libel action against the BBC and a court action against the HFEA. The latter was settled last week with the withdrawal of all charges against him. His latest clash with the authorities before the GMC is being keenly watched.

SOURCE: independent.co.uk

Doctor in IVF furore is the best

Doctor in IVF furore is the best, says watchdog
• Taranissi success at 61%, double national average • Technique results in 12,596 births in UK overall

Britain's most controversial fertility doctor has once again been ranked as its most successful by the government's IVF watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Mohammed Taranissi's Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre in London recorded the highest success rates among more than 100 clinics offering IVF in Britain, according to figures released by the regulator. Nearly two-thirds of Taranissi's patients who were under 35 had a live birth in 2006.
His success rate of 61% is almost double the national average of 31% for patients of the same age. Another clinic run by Taranissi, the Reproductive Genetics Institute, which has since closed, ranked second with a live birth rate of 50% for every cycle of treatment.
Overall, the figures show that there were 12,596 live IVF births in 2006, up 11.9% on the previous year, meaning that 16 babies out of every 1,000 born are IVF infants. They also show a substantial rise in couples seeking IVF across the country.
Nearly 35,000 women were treated in UK clinics in 2006, an increase of 6.8% on the year before. Success rates also rose across age groups, and markedly in women over 44, where live births rose from 0.8% to 4% for women using their own eggs. The use of donor sperm fell sharply, however, with 28% fewer treatments than in 2005. The fall, which the HFEA described as a "great concern", coincides with a change in the law that year which removed sperm donors' right to anonymity.
Lisa Jardine, chair of the HFEA, said: "In the year that we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the birth of the world's first IVF baby, these latest figures show just how far we've come. IVF is now commonplace, with the number of treatment cycles and births rising yet again." Last year, the average age of women having fertility treatment in Britain rose for the 10th consecutive year to 35.2 years old.
The HFEA has been in dispute with Taranissi for years. Last year his offices were raided by the HFEA on the evening of a BBC documentary about his clinics.
Taranissi is suing the broadcaster for libel. The BBC was yesterday ordered to pay an estimated £500,000 in legal costs to Taranissi. The BBC initially defended the documentary, IVF Undercover, which relied on undercover filming at Taranissi's clinic, saying it represented responsible journalism conveying matters in the public interest. However, it withdrew this defence last month. The BBC is continuing to defend its programme, citing the "hazards" of protecting confidential sources. It will seek to prove before the high court in January that the allegations are true.
Taranissi appeared before the General Medical Council this week to answer unrelated allegations from two patients who were treated at his clinic.
"We maintain a good service by being available seven days a week, because you have to be available to do things at the best time. We've also introduced a few new things which are not widely practised across the board, and some of them are still very controversial," said Taranissi.
London clinics completed the top five of the league table. The Lister Fertility Clinic and University College Hospital reported 44% live births in the under-35s, and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital 42%.
The HFEA figures also reveal which clinics created the most twins. Taranissi's clinic ranked second for multiple births, with 32% being twins.

Source: guardian.co.uk