Vientiane hospital offers assisted reproductive technology to infertile couples

The Mother and Newborn Hospital in Vientiane is now offering highly specialised treatments to couples who have not been able to have children.
Head of the Infertility Department at the Mother and Newborn Hospital, Dr Bounxou Inthapatha, told the local media recently that the hospital has successfully launched the intra uterine insemination (IUI) treatment along with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) to assist couples wanting to have children.
Health experts say couples more than 35 years of age find it difficult to have babies. People usually marry late and often postpone the idea of starting a family. Advanced age is one of the main reasons of infertility along with other factors such as a stressful life, including worries about finances. Dr Bounxou Inthapatha said all married couples who have been trying to conceive for over a year and haven’t been able to should consult the hospital. He encouraged married couples to drop by for a reproductive health check-up too.
IUI is a process of fertilisation wherein an egg is combined with a sperm outside the body. This technique is used to prepare the gametes (reproductive cells) for obtaining embryos that may be transferred to a maternal uterus, he informed.
He noted that IUI involves the insertion of sperm into the uterine cavity around the time of ovulation. This can be done during a natural cycle, without the use of drugs, or the ovaries may be stimulated with oral anti-estrogens or gonadotropin.
Head Specialist of Paediatrics and Neonatology at the Mother and Newborn Hospital, Dr Phommady Vesaphong said, “We hope that all couples will be able to have a full-term, successful pregnancy after being treated by the doctors at our hospital.”
She said teamwork was one of the main reason for their recent successes in applying assisted reproductive technology. Children born through assisted reproduction methods may face more healthcare challenges than newborn from natural pregnancies. Therefore, greater access to standard health services is needed. There are several differences between classic IVF and IUI. However, IUI, also known as artificial insemination, is a simple procedure.
The doctor places sperm that was previously collected and processed in the lab, into the uterine cavity. Before insertion, the lab “washes” the sperm by removing seminal fluid and concentrating the sperm. In Vitro fertilization (IVF) is a fertility treatment, or assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedure, in which a man’s sperm and a woman’s eggs are combined outside the woman’s body in a lab.

By Phetphoxay Sengpaseuth
(Latest Update July 31, 2020)