Four siblings among 5,031 kids born with fertility treatment in Dubai

Dubai: Four siblings of a Dubai-based family are among the 5,031 babies born after their parents undertook treatment provided by the Dubai Fertility Centre (DFC), Dubai Health Authority said on Wednesday.

The Al Hamad siblings include a pair of twins who were born after their parents, who had struggled with 10 years of infertility, sought help from the DFC.

Whuile the twins Ateaj and Ammar are eight years old, Abdul Rahman is two years and Salama two months.

The centre has achieved a 67 per cent pregnancy success rate in the first quarter of this year, up from 66 per cent achieved in 2019, which is above the international success rate of 45 per cent, DFC director Hana Tahwara said following the release of a report.

“We have been successful in increasing the pregnancy success rate by raising the efficiency of work and introducing various fertilisation techniques. This increased the centre’s success rate in 2019 to 66 per cent compared to 38 per cent in 2013. Since the inception of the centre in 1991, 5,031 babies were born because of the centre’s services and procedures,” said Tahrawa.

Highlighting the centre’s services, Tahwara, said DFC, which receives around 14,000 visits annually, provides medical assisted reproduction and fertility services.

“From 2014-2020, the centre performed 8,875 fertility procedures, 44,000 ultrasounds and 1,466 genetic screenings. The DFC is one of the first centres specialising in fertility treatment to begin providing testing services to detect genetic diseases in families that have a history of conditions such as thalassemia or genetic abnormalities,” said Tahwara.

Tahrawa added that the centre received 79,262 visits from couples from 2014 to 2019, out of which 63.6 per cent were Emiratis and 36.4 per cent were expats. The top nationalities after the UAE were from the GCC, other Arab countries, Asia, America, Africa, Australia/New Zealand and Europe respectively. She said that this fulfils the DHA’s goals of promoting and attracting medical tourism as many of the visitors travel to the UAE specifically seeking the centre’s services.

“We also achieved a 71 per cent success rate in embryo transfers in the first quarter of 2020 and 85 per cent success rate in freezing eggs in 2019. A total of 3,180 egg samples have been frozen from 2014-2019. Freezing services contribute to the treatment of delayed pregnancy and fertility problems by providing the opportunity for the couple to plan future pregnancies by using their frozen samples according to the country’s laws and protocols. This service enables patients suffering from cancer to store their eggs before chemotherapy so that they can use it later after recovery.”

DFC services

Major fertility processes: In vitro fertilisation (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm insemination (ICSI), intrauterine insemination (IUI), embryo transfer, ICSI for frozen eggs, ovulation induction, male infertility procedure such as Testicular Epididymal Sperm Aspiration ( TESA) and Percutaneous Epididymal Sperm Aspiration ( PESA), and embryology laboratory service.

Gametes freezing services: Freezing of semen, oocytes and embryos , and Genetic screening and diagnostic service including (DNA testing by PCR to diagnose a specific genetic disorder such as thalassemia or sickle cell anemia, Microarray DNA testing, Human leukocyte Antigen (HLA) matching, Next Generation sequencing (NGS).

Gynaecology services and other operations services: This includes hysteroscopy and ultrasound services.