Cost of infertility treatment in Iran; one-tenth in European countries

Tehran, May 30, IRNA - Director of Avicenna Center for Infertility and Recurrent Abortion said on Saturday that the cost of infertility treatment in Iran is one-tenth to one-fiftieth that of other countries in the region and one-tenth of the cost of the treatment in the European states and one-fifteenth that of the United States. Ali Sadeghi Tabar said that new methods of infertility treatment depend on equipment and materials such as laboratory culture medium, which are produced by several limited companies in the world and have the same price all over the world. "But the cost of infertility treatment in Iran is cheaper than other countries, even countries in the region, and the reason is that all Iranian medical tariffs are cheaper than other countries." Iranian couples no longer need to travel abroad for consultation or treatment for infertility as advanced methods of treatment for couples who have problems to conceive, are available in the country, said Dr Jalil Hosseini, head of the Infertility and Reproductive Health Research Center at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. “Infertility affects an estimated 10%-15% of couples globally,” IRNA quoted him as saying recently. *** IVF Hope for Childless Couples Since April 2015, an infertility treatment plan called ‘Barekat-e-Khanevadeh’ (Family Blessing) is underway in Iran’s underprivileged areas in 10 provinces and all infertile couples between the ages 20-40 years can benefit from the specialized treatments, free of charge. “The plan will continue in the current year as well,” said Ebadollah Emadi, program manager in an interview with Iranian media before. Based on the latest surveys conducted, it is estimated that there are 450,000 infertile couples in the rural areas and some of them cannot afford to pay for the costly infertility treatments,” he said. So far, more than 2,800 infertile couples in the country have been identified of whom 1,100 have undergone treatment for infertility.