HYDERABAD: Fertility treatments have advanced by leaps and bounds. So has its adoption by people in urban and rural areas alike. But, one thing has still not changed. The bias against having a girl child and the preference for a male ‘heir’. Practitioners claim that several people who opt for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) come up with a specific demand for a male embryo to be implanted.
Consultant gynaecologist at Swapna Healthcare Dr Sree Durga Patchava says they frequently get such requests from couples, but they turn them down. Some couples, practitioners claim, who have only girl children come for IVF saying they are doing it to have a boy. This, despite sex selection during IVF treatment being banned by the law.
Women at receiving end
If at all an IVF procedure fails, it’s the woman who goes through a harrowing experience. Practitioners recount several cases where the wife is bullied by her in-laws or other elders in the house for failing to get pregnant despite treatment. “We have seen cases of women being threatened with divorce inside consultation rooms,” says one gynaecologist.
In some cases, family elders ask specialists to give it in writing that the woman cannot become pregnant so that it can be used while filing for divorce. Before specialists suggest IVF treatment, the couple has to undergo multiple rounds of medical consultation and counselling. Sometimes, even family elders insist on being part of consultations.“Unfortunately, even if it’s the man who is infertile, the woman is victimised,” said Dr Sree Durga.
What is IVF?
In Vitro Fertilisation is a procedure in which an egg (female) is fertilised by the sperm (male) outside the body. ‘In Vitro’ translates to ‘in glass’, implying that the fertilisation process happens in a petri dish, and the egg is then embedded into the uterus of the woman for a successful pregnancy. A colloquial name for such babies is ‘test-tube baby’.