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fitness and well-being
Srinivas Madabusi, director specialities, Merck India throws light on the Parents of Fertility
initiative, which has begun a journey of hope that infertility can be dealt with.
The initiative
Parents of Fertility is an educational initiative by Merck which aims to spread awareness
about infertility and help couples fulfil their dream of parent-hood. Today, despite rapid
advances in treatment infertility affects nearly 10-15 per cent of married couples in India,
nearly 27.5 million couples. Nambiar says, “With this initiative, we aim to reach out to them
with the message of hope that infertility can be dealt with. We understand that seeking
treatment is emotionally physically challenging. Also, there is a lot of stigma associated
around IVF. Therefore, our objective was to simplify the entire process of sharing
information for couples seeking help for infertility and connect them with fertility centres
that will provide them with quality care. Through this initiative, we want to reach out to
couples across segments who are seeking help.”
The USP
Merck combines more than 60 years of heritage in fertility and a deep understanding of
the needs of patients and healthcare practioners globally. They believe it is their responsibility
to use their knowledge and expertise to spread fertility awareness. They are also working
with stakeholders to drive awareness on quality in IVF and build capability and capacity.
Challenges
The stigma around infertility in India and the limited information available on IVF pose as
a major hurdle for people seeking treatment. Given the taboo around infertility, it is difficult
to convince some parents to take up IVF. Sometimes even if the couple is ready, due to
parental and societal pressures they do not reach out to seek help of specialists. Although
society is opening up to this medium and we have seen many successful cases with IVF,
there is still a gap in the number of infertile couples in India and the ones who actually seek
intervention. To bust myths and support this journey, we recently released a video on
infertility. The video, a personal memoir of Farah’s journey into parenthood is a vivid
recollection of her fears, challenges, doubts and ultimately her story of hope, belief and
positivity towards IVF that led her to become a mother. With this video, they expect to
reach out to millions of couples seeking help with the message that infertility can be dealt
with and one should not lose hope and seek help of specialists to fulfil their dream.
anjalishetty@crememagazine.in
March 2017 111