Doctors say that couples with irregular working hours or travelling jobs have a reduced frequency of intercourse on the fertile days and they often opt for IVF
AaIkash Sharma, 39, and his wife Sunaina, 33, (names changed on request) lived in different cities for most of the year due to their jobs. Married for six years, while the distance didn’t affect their relationship – Aakash works in Delhi as an IT consultant, and Sunaina is a senior manager at a pharmaceutical company in Mumbai – they realised it wasn’t making it easy for them to have children.
Three years into marriage, they felt it was time to start a family. “We met once a month. We wanted to go the natural way, but it was turning out to be too difficult,” said Sunaina.“The doctor told us, it is mostly timing that was not matching. We were just not able to make time more often,” said Sunaina. That’s when the two decided to turn to technology. Sunaina is now four months pregnant through in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
Dr Richa Jagtap, the couple’s IVF consultant at Nova IVI Fertility In Mumbai, sees about 10 - 15 such couples every month, who have unexplained issues related to conception. “Of these, most require counselling on the fertile days to conceive. Some go in for intra-uterine insemination that entails depositing husband’s sperm inside the wife’s uterus, while the some couples opt for IVF, which entails fertilizing embryo outside the womb and later transplanting it,” said Dr Jagtap. One in every two couples who opt for IVF successfully conceive, she says. When Sunaina was going through IVF, Aakash had to fly in twice to be with his wife. “During egg retrieval, the husband needs to be present to donate his semen. Also it is desirable that the husband be present during transplantation of the embryo in the womb,” said Dr Jagtap. “We gave the couple dates of the procedure, so they could co-ordinate the travel in advance.” The couple makes close to two lakh rupees a month, and had to spend over a lakh and a half on the IVF cycle, excluding pregnancy costs. “It was expensive for us. We kept aside a certain sum every month and planned this,” said Sunaina. “The way things were going due to our hectic schedules left us emotionally frustrated, but we persisted and found a way out.”
Many couples, wherein the husbands are posted in Merchant Navy or Defence Forces, approach doctors for IVF. “Recently, a 28-year-old whose husband works with Border Security Forces (BSF) approached me for IVF. She is due to deliver a baby next month.” said Dr Jagtap.
Doctors say that couples with irregular working hours or travelling jobs have a reduced frequency of intercourse on the fertile days and they often opt for IVF. “In some cases, it’s work-related stress, and they do not feel like having sex. Some have jobs that requires extensive of travelling, and miss the fertile days, which start from tenth day after the first day of period and lasts up to the 16th day,” said Dr Ashwini Bhalerao-Gandhi, gynaecologist at PD Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai.
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