This is a unique, patient centric programmeme. It has been developed with compassion to help patients overcome childlessness. The three-cycle programme has been developed considering medical, social psychological factors of the IVF treatment cycle. So let’s understand some facts about IVF / fertility treatments.
- Test tube baby process is a technique started almost 40 years ago. The success rate of the test tube process is about 30 to 40%. This means after undergoing the first cycle 3 - 4 patients, out of 10, will conceive.
- Remaining 6 - 7 women have to undergo the treatment again. In a few cases, a patient may need to undergo 4-5 cycles.
- Expenditure increases with the number of cycles. Treatment cost in our country is around 1.0- 1.5 lakh rupees if the treatment is repeated three to five times the expenditure can go as high as 5 to 8 lacs.
The main problem is- there is no 100% guarantee of pregnancy.
The research so far indicates that after getting treated for 3-4 times, 75- 80% women were successful. This leaves the remaining 25 to 30% women. Who despite going through the treatment three to five times have to undergo the trauma of an unsuccessful outcome. Most couples are hesitant to take up the treatment due to two hindering factors-
High Cost Uncertainty
High cost and uncertainty are the main reasons why they hesitate to take up the treatment. If there was any insurance cover for the treatment it would have been much easier. As of now there is no insurance policy or government aid which covers the expense for the test tube baby treatment. This expenditure is to be incurred by the couples themselves in most of the cases. Considering all these issues, Team OurIvfAngels came up with the three-cycle programme. This is like patient to patient insurance. Where successful patients’ subsidies unsuccessful patients. This is done by refunding 50% amount to the unsuccessful patients. It can be related to a simple money back policy.
Currently every patient deposits about Rs. 300000.
- After undergoing treatments 75- 80% women become pregnant.
- Remaining 20-25% patients, who are not successful, about half of the money(1.45lac) is refunded to them.
- So one can say that the patients who successfully conceive helps the unfortunate / unsuccessful patients.
It is important to note that fertility treatment , like any other medical intervention is NOT 100% successful. It has got its own limitations. The end point of the treatment is seeing heartbeat of the baby and not just the pregnancy test.
This includes all medications for IVF cycle. Hormone injection, sonography, lab material, anaesthesia and all consultant charges. It doesn't include medication of multivitamins and any specific medicines .like tablets for thyroid or blood pressure, if needed,
Advantages of this programme
Financial
As we have seen 20-25 % of patients do not get pregnant. They get half the money back. Some patients are advised to continue further treatment. In such cases they have half the amount ready and they need to arrange for the remaining half. This makes theprocess slightly easy. Some patients are advised to go for other options like adoption. This money is of great help for the adoption process and later on too. Patients who have taken loans find it extremely painful to continue paying EMIs for a treatment which has not been successful.. But this refund helps to reduce the burden of loan too.
Psychological
Psychology plays a crucial role in fertility treatments. As we have seen earlier. Fertility treatment needs multiple attempts. Each attempt is a month long, as a normal menstrual cycle is that of a month. So, after a failed attempt patient finds it very difficult to gather themself again for the next attempt. If they has enrolled for 3 cycles they are already financially prepared and are helped by the clinic and encouraged to continue treatment. This makes it easy to overcome the failure. Patients do not lose time. We also encourage patients to interact and form a group. This is like a fertility support group. Patients can share their experiences with others.
Medical
With each treatment many factors come to light. IVf cycle has a diagnostic side as well. Here we gather information about how the body responds to particular dose and duration. If the cycle is not successful we can review the details of dose duration, egg quality, embryo quality and endometrium in the previous treatment. This helps us to improve in the next cycle. This way there is an increase in cumulative success rate. This we call as progressive fine-tuning methodology.