Fertility treatment comes of age in UAE

Dubai: One in seven couples have trouble conceiving worldwide, and in the UAE the demand for fertility treatment is higher than the global average, say fertility experts.

The reason for the increased demand in the UAE is linked to cultural values that place a greater emphasis on motherhood and bigger family size.

Speaking to Gulf News during the opening of the UAE arm of the Bourn Hall Clinic in Dubai, a UK-based fertility clinic recognised as the world’s first in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinic, the CEO of Bourn Hall International Dr Mike Macnamee, said that couples in the Gulf, especially of Arab descent, seek to have more than three children.

He said that in the West and most of Asia, the family size has reduced with most couples having no more than two children.

“For example, the current birth rate in the UK is about 1.8 per cent while in the UAE it is about four per cent,” he said.

The demand for infertility treatments is also due to delayed marriage, deferred motherhood, and increased education and work opportunities for women, explained Dr David Robertson, the clinic’s medical director and specialist in the field of assisted reproductive treatments in the UAE and internationally.

He spoke to Gulf News about the changing attitudes towards infertility treatments: “Twenty years ago, couples would have accepted a childless marriage due to infertility. Today they enter consultation with research material from the internet and magazines.”

In context of infertility causes, Dr Robertson explained that unlike in the West, where most women suffer from blocked fallopian tubes, women in the Gulf region — especially Arab — suffer from infertility due to Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a condition that affects how a woman’s ovaries work. “The average age for women to give birth is in her early 30s while in Europe it is mid- to late 30s,” he said.

Addressing the trend of freezing sperm and eggs, he said that while freezing sperm is well established in terms of success rate, the latter is a new science that dates only a few years.

“General reasons for men to freeze sperm is due to infertility arising from treatment like chemotherapy or before a vasectomy. Whereas women choose to freeze eggs to deal with deferred marriage and/or motherhood. In Dubai, freezing eggs isn’t part of mainstream infertility treatments, and isn’t common,” he said.