The infertility centre at Tata Motors Hospital. (Bhola Prasad)

Jamshedpur, Oct. 26: An infertility centre was opened for patients at Tata Motors Hospital today. The first-of-its-kind clinic in the region was inaugurated by Tata Motors plant head S.B. Borwankar in the presence of senior doctors and other medical staff.

To start with the clinic will offer Intra-Uterine Insemination (IUI) facilities for infertile couples. Later it would be upgraded into a full-fledged In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) clinic. Children born with the help of IVF treatment are commonly known as test tube babies.

“For most couples who suffer from unexplained infertility, IUI is the first step towards conceiving,” said Chitra Ray, a senior gynaecologist at Tata Motors Hospital. In IUI, the sperm is first processed in a laboratory and then injected into a woman's uterus. Not only unexplained infertility, it also aids conception in women suffering from mild endometriosis and ovulation problems and mild male factor and cervical factor infertility.

Though the overall success rate of the process is between 30 and 40 per cent, woman below the age of 40 benefit the most. During treatment, a woman is given medication to stimulate production of multiple eggs and insemination is timed to coincide with ovulation.

“We ought to come up with more ideas in medicine so that people in and around the city can benefit. We still have got lot of ideas to implement and we will support philanthropic ventures of the hospital,” said Borwankar.

IVF or test tube facilities are expected to start within a year. About Rs 25 lakh has been spent to set up the facility. “IVF will require an investment of another Rs 50 lakh for advanced equipment and specialised operation theatres,” said a senior doctor of the hospital.