- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: Cut-price fertility care helping South Africans conceive
- Date: 5th August 2014
- Summary: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (JULY 11, 2014) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF TYGERBERG HOSPITAL VARIOUS OF PATIENTS IN CORRIDORS AT GYNAECOLOGY CLINIC GYNAECOLOGY CLINIC SIGN DOCTOR THABO MATSESENG, GYNAECOLOGIST AND OBSTETRICIAN, ENTERING REPRODUCTIVE LABORATORY VARIOUS OF MATSESENG WORKING WITH MICROSCOPE ALONGSIDE AND EMBRYOLOGIST, EVELYN ERASMUS VARIOUS OF EMBRYOLOGIST, MARIE-LENA DE BEER, WORKING ON SPECIMENS AT MICROSCOPE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DOCTOR THABO MATSESENG, GYNAECOLOGIST AND OBSTETRICIAN, SAYING: "Because not everyone can afford IVF (in - vitro fertilisation) and if you can afford it the majority you will find in the private sector, therefore the whole concept or notion of IVF on a shoestring simply means what is that available bare minimum service you can use to make them available for patients to use to make treatment available to them? In our set up we work with the human resource, or the staffing is barely enough to make the whole treatment work effectively." MATSESENG TAKING MEDICATION OUT OF THE SAFE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DOCTOR THABO MATSESENG, GYNAECOLOGIST AND OBSTETRICIAN, SAYING: "This is the medication we use to build up the eggs in an IVF cycle, and in a complex conventional IVF you will use in excess of 15 to 20 ampules of these injectables, together with other drugs to time when the eggs are going to come out or delay the spontaneous release of certain hormones that might spoil your eggs. In our cycle we don't do that because the patient cannot afford the medication or protocol." MATSESENG WITH MEDICATION (SOUNDBITE) (English) DOCTOR THABO MATSESENG, GYNAECOLOGIST AND OBSTETRICIAN, SAYING: "If you look at the way we stimulate our eggs, for ovaries to get the eggs, it is different from the way the conventional IVF is done and it has been done like this before, but because of poor results or lower results it was abandoned and better ways were employed, but we cannot afford the better way so we still going back to the old ways of stimulating eggs, bare minimum." VARIOUS OF ALINA PHOHLELA AND HER BABY KARABO ENTERING THE GYNAECOLOGY CLINIC. POSTER OF MOTHER AND CHILD ON WALL VARIOUS OF INCUBATOR PHOHLELA AND BABY (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALINA PHOHLELA, MOTHER WHO WAS HELPED ON THE PROGRAMME, SAYING: "In our culture when you are married you are expected to have babies, anyway luckily for me I was married in a family that people are highly educated so they were not pressurising me with having babies or something like that. But I for one wanted to have a baby for my own and my husband, and we used to talk about to the end that we gave up, we thought maybe it was God's will, if you don't have babies then we must just give up and live our lives." VARIOUS OF MATSESENG SAYING GOODBYE TO PHOHLELA PHOHLELA LEAVES HOSPITAL WITH CHILD
- Embargoed: 20th August 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: South Africa
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: General,Health,Science
- Reuters ID: LVAWBETWLSYQGTR9P690XH44B0
- Story Text: A pioneering South African fertility clinic is helping bringing IVF (in - vitro fertilisation) to the masses by cutting its cost by around 80 percent. In a country where an inability to have children can result in huge social stigma, Dr. Thabo Matseseng and his team of doctors at Tygerberg Hospital have devised a cut-price way of delivering high-quality IVF treatment.
IVF treatment is not covered by medical aid and Matseseng, a gynaecologist and obstetrician, says it is important to give access to fertility treatment to those on lower incomes.
"Because not everyone can afford IVF (in - vitro fertilisation) and if you can afford it the majority you will find in the private sector, therefore the whole concept or notion of IVF on a shoestring simply means what is that available bare minimum service you can use to make them available for patients to use to make treatment available to them? In our set up we work with the human resource, or the staffing is barely enough to make the whole treatment work effectively," he said.
To make treatment cheaper, Matseseng first cut down on unnecessary staffing costs, but even more importantly, his team made radical changes to the treatment process itself. In traditional IVF treatment a patient receives a large amount of hormone therapy to produce as many eggs as possible. At Tygerberg far less medication is used, producing fewer eggs, but enough to produce pregnancy in up to 30 percent of cases, as opposed to almost 40 percent using traditional dosages.
In addition, local anaesthesia and conscious sedation is used instead of placing the patient under anaesthesia, an expensive process that requires theatre time and the hiring of an anaesthetist.
Matseseng said: "In a complex conventional IVF you will use in excess of 15 to 20 ampules of these injectables, together with other drugs to time when the eggs are going to come out or delay the spontaneous release of certain hormones that might spoil your eggs. In our cycle we don't do that because the patient cannot afford the medication or protocol."
Treatment at Tygerberg costs around R7,000 (650 US dollars) for a cycle of IVF treatment, compared to the average R35,000 (3,300 US dollars) in the private sector.
The doctor says his team's methodology is a return to methods previously abandoned by other clinics when results were poor. "If you look at the way we stimulate our eggs, for ovaries to get the eggs, it is different from the way the conventional IVF is done and it has been done like this before, but because of poor results or lower results it was abandoned and better ways were employed, but we cannot afford the better way so we still going back to the old ways of stimulating eggs, bare minimum," he said.
After trying to become pregnant for nine years, 39-year-old Alina Phohlela had given up on the idea of motherhood, but after treatment at Tygerberg she is now the mother of a healthy 18 month old girl.
"In our culture when you are married you are expected to have babies, anyway luckily for me I was married in a family that people are highly educated so they were not pressurising me with having babies or something like that, but I for one wanted to have a baby for my own and my husband, and we used to talk about to the end that we gave up, we thought maybe it was God's will, if you don't have babies then we must just give up and live our lives," she said.
In a further boost to childless couples, Tygerberg Hospital will next year take part in a trial of a cheap portable laboratory developed by European scientists that fits inside a shoebox. The Walking Egg's pint sized 'laboratory' simulates a process that has been used to transport cow embryos. It mixes citric acid and baking soda in a test tube. This creates CO2 bubbles that are put into a second test tube containing a culture medium for the embryo.
After successful trials in the Belgian city of Genk, resulting in 17 successful pregnancies, the Walking Egg will be rolled out for the public in South Africa later this year. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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