Merck Philippines, the country’s extension of the oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company in the world has been aggressive in their fertility awareness since 2015.
Tagged as “Bridging Baby Steps”, the goal of Merck Philippines is to provide continuous education on infertility as well as raising awareness about the In-Vitro Fertilization or IVF methods available in the country via numerous seminars and cascading of vital information.
Infertility, as defined by World Health Organization (WHO), is a disease of the reproductive system defined by the failure achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse.
Merck Philippines’ Sales and Marketing Manager Dess Cartaño said,
“As they say, where there’s life, there’s hope. We, at Merck Philippines, understand the heartaches of couples who can’t conceive a child. We want to let them know that there are means and ways to combat infertility.”
Recently, Merck Philippines held another infertility awareness event entitled “Bridging Baby Steps, Fertility Awareness 2017” at Edsa Shangri-La Hotel. Open to the public, the event had a fertility awareness survey for the attendees through the use of tablets being filled out interactively. Free consultations were also provided by various doctors.
Highlighting the “Bridging Baby Steps” Infertility Awareness 2017 event was a 3-hour seminar that focused on common misconceptions in infertility management, treatment options for infertility and egg freezing. Here are three infertility treatment options as discussed by Dr. Anthony Marc B. Ancheta from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of The Medical City Hospital:
Ovulation Induction + Follicle Monitoring + Timed Intercourse
In this process, there are a couple of pre requisites to be check for a good chances of getting pregnant, approximately 25% for 20-30 years old bracket and less than 10% for females above 35 years old. Some of the requirements include a good quality egg and the fallopian tubes have to be open. And there should be an adequate number of rapidly swimming and the so-called “good looking” sperm.
Ovulation Induction + Follicle Monitoring + Artificial Insemination (Intrauterine Insemination)
For the artificial insemination process, the chances of getting pregnant is just between 15 – 20 percent per cycle. As a pre requisite, again a good quality egg, at least one of the fallopian tubes have to be open. For the sperms, a total of 5 million should be inseminated.
In-Vitro Fertilization ( IVF)
With the IVF process, egg retrieval should be done first, then fertilization procedure before the embryo transfer. This has a higher chances of getting pregnant with 41% for 35 years old and below, and 12% for females between 41-42 years old. No fallopian tubes required, there should be a minimum number of developing follicles and minimum number of “good-looking” sperms as part of the pre requisites for this process.
To know more about infertility and IVF in the Philippines, visit www.facebook.com/fertilityawarenessphilippines.
