Successful fertility treatments result in four siblings

Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA) Dubai Fertility Centre revealed that 5,031 babies were born following successful treatments between the centre opening in 1991 and August 2020.

Amongst the 5,031 babies born, all four of the AlHamad siblings were born as a result of the treatment and services provided by the Dubai Fertility Centre. The mother, who did not wish to be named, said that she welcomed her first set of twins Ateaj and Amaar now aged eight, after 10 years of infertility.

They were then followed by Abdulrahman, who is two and Salama who is two months old.

The centre said that it has achieved a 67 per cent pregnancy success rate in the first quarter of this year, a further increase from the 66 percent achieved in 2019, which is above the international success rate of 45 per cent.

This was revealed in a statistical report that highlighted the centre’s achievements, which was shared by Hana Tahwara, the Director of the Dubai Fertility Centre.

“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 opening of the centre in 1991, 5,031 babies were born because of the centre’s services and procedures,” said Tahrawa.

International standards

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

“From 2014 to 2020, the centre performed 8,875 fertility procedures, 44,000 ultrasounds and 1,466 genetic screenings. The Dubai Fertility centre 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 between 2014 and 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. 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 with 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 were frozen between 2014 and 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 them following recovery.”

Tahrawa concluded by highlighting the accreditation received stating that the Dubai Fertility Centre became the first fertility centre in the region to successfully achieve a diamond-level accreditation from Accreditation Canada International (ACI) for assisted reproductive technology (ART) and leadership standards during the reaccreditation survey.

This is the highest level of accreditation awarded from Accreditation Canada and was achieved by the centre after it has successfully met 99.5 per cent of the requirements. The centre also obtained a certificate of excellence for two years in a row from Dubai Healthcare City Authority, and achieved first place with 97.9 per cent and 99.29 per cent for quality assessment standards.