Dr. Maysa Khadra during her lecture on infertility and IVF. Pic: Rajan Vadakkemuriyil
Doha: Al-Ahli Hospital held a seminar on infertility and in vitro fertilization (IVF) to celebrate International Women’s Day yesterday. The event, themed “Together we build miracles,” was attended by a range of medical experts as well as members of the general public.
Speakers at the hour-long event were Dr. Maysa Khadra, Dr. Ahmed Khalfallah who are both IVF and OB-GYNE Consultants, and Amani Saleh, Senior Embryologist.
Dr. Khadra spoke about infertility and IVF, while Dr. Khalfallah discussed Genetic Screening and Gender Selection, and Saleh talked about taking care of embryos in the laboratory.
In his welcoming address, Dr. Mazen Bishtawi, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist Head of Department said that a healthy woman is essential for a healthy society. “To build a healthy society, we need to bring focus more on woman’s services.”
Speaking to The Peninsula, Dr. Khadra said the celebration of women’s day is an important day. “I believe women are not half of the society, woman is the society - she is the building block.”
She explained that among the goals of the event is to remove the stigma around infertility. “Infertility is not having children, it is having difficulty to have children, so not every woman or man or a couple that has difficulty are infertile, but they have difficulty to achieve a pregnancy.”
According to Al-Ahli Hospital data, the success rate of IVF before COVID-19 is at 50 percent, and as the pandemic is at the transition point, the success rate in pregnancy is around 40 to 50 percent. Dr. Khadra, who is also a Gynecology Consultant of Infertility and IVF in Australia, said the IVF services being offered at Al-Ahli Hospital are secured. “There is nothing wrong with it, kids born during these procedures are healthy babies, and as you know Qatar is flourishing in many aspects, and I really believe we have a very good chance to be actually bringing more patients even more in the Gulf area.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Khalfallah discussed Pre-implantation Genetic Testing (PGT), Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS) and its techniques and indications, and Pre-implantation Genetic diagnosis, among others. He stressed that PGT and PGS refer to the same process of testing embryos prior to their transfer into a patient during an IVF cycle.
“The aim of the method is to screen embryos for genetic anomalies and improve the odds of a successful pregnancy,” he explained.
“PGS now referred at PGT-A (PGT-aneuploidy) applies when the genetic parents are known or presumed to be chromosomally normal, and their embryos are screened for aneuploidy. The screening helps to reduce the chance of having a child or missing chromosomes,” Dr. Khalfallah said.
