A boon for childless couples

A CLINIC that has earned a name for itself as one of India's best, fully integrated, specialised provider of infertility treatment and genetic services is the Bangalore Assisted Conception Centre (BACC). Established in 1989 with the aim of providing exclusive care for infertile couples, BACC is one of the best-equipped infertility clinics in the country. It offers state-of-the-art assisted reproductive techniques, both diagnostic and procedural, and also prenatal diagnosis and therapy. More than 18,000 infertile couples have so far been treated at BACC.

One of the first infertility clinics in India to be awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification, BACC has successfully treated childless couples from across India, and of late those from abroad too. The escalating costs of medical treatment in the West and in West Asia force people from these regions to visit BACC, given its competitive charges and the expertise of its doctors. Among BACC's achievements are the birth of a baby through the sperm intra-fallopian transfer (SIFT) technique for the first time in India and the birth of babies through ICSI and Laser Assisted Hatching techniques for the first time in South India.

According to BACC's medical director, Dr. Kamini A. Rao, the success rate for couples opting for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) at her clinic is around 40 per cent. This could go up to 80 per cent once problems relating to implantation of the fertilised embryo in the uterus are solved.

Said Dr. Kamini Rao: "Stress hormones have an impact on the hypothalamus gland, which produces reproductive hormones. Sexual disorders are on the rise, especially in professions like information technology (IT) where deadlines and odd hours have turned many a couple's biological clock upside down. A study conducted by us showed that one in four of our patients was from the IT sector. Professionals who have to attend to frequent emergencies and irregular working hours - like airhostesses, lady doctors, and journalists - also encounter infertility problems."