For almost 30 years - since the world's first "test-tube" baby was born in July 1978 - the benefits of modern infertility treatments have been largely confined to couples in developed countries. There, we have seen more than 3 million babies born as a result of IVF and, in some countries, as many as 4 per cent of all babies born conceived by modern fertility techniques.
The plight of couples in developing countries, especially women, has been acknowledged, but rarely advanced from words into action. Now, a task force of ESHRE (the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology), the world's leading professional organisation in reproductive medicine, has devised a programme of fertility treatment for developing countries which aims to integrate fertility clinics within broader family health services. Two pilot IVF services have already opened in Africa.
According to Professor Oluwole Akande from University College Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria, infertility in developing countries raises complex problems beyond those known to developed nations. "In poor resource areas," he says, "the need for infertility treatment in general, and IVF in particular, is great. The inability to have children can create enormous problems, particularly for the woman. She might be disinherited, ostracised, accused of witchcraft, abused by local healers, separated from her spouse, or abandoned to a second-class life in a polygamous marriage."
There are many reasons why infertility treatment has not been widely introduced in developing countries. The main explanations are poverty and limited health resources, but there is also the paradox that most of the countries where needs are greatest are also the countries where population growth is running out of control.
Says Dr Willem Ombelet, from the Genk Institute for Fertility Technology in Genk, Belgium, and co-ordinator of the ESHRE task force: "It is for these reasons that the ESHRE task force plans are to integrate infertility treatment within existing family planning and mother-care services. The most important goal is to provide treatment which is safe, affordable and culturally acceptable.
The ESHRE programme proposes three levels of treatment, but its cornerstone is the provision of affordable IVF. Currently, one cycle of IVF treatment in Europe or the USA costs between US$ 5000 and 10,000. A system of low-cost IVF now being pilot-studied in Khartoum and Cape Town aims to provide one cycle of IVF for less than $200.
One of the instigators of the low-cost IVF scheme, Dr. Luca Gianaroli from the SISMER Reproductive Medicine Unit, in Bologna, Italy, says: "It's a different approach to IVF. We will not be able to treat every type of infertility, but many women with tubal damage as a result of infection can be helped." While the scheme has limited laboratory facilities for incubation, embryo selection and embryo freezing, Gianaroli says triplets and high-order pregnancies will be avoided.
The cornerstones in the treatment of infertility in low-resource settings, says Ombelet, are the simplification of techniques, minimizing of complications, training for healthcare workers, and the incorporation of fertility treatments into existing healthcare programmes.
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