Kazakhstan's fertility programme to help families conceive children
On October 28, the Ministry of Health held the Third International Scientific Conference in Astana that looked at modern approaches to the treatment of infertile marriages, as well as the problems of assisted reproductive technology (ART).
The conference brought together 300 leading experts in the field of reproductive technologies from Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, France, Belgium, Greece, and Israel. It also gathered obstetricians and gynecologists involved in the treatment of infertility and representatives of in vitro fertilization (IVF) centres, the Kazakh MFA's press service reports.
The Ministry of Health organized the conference as part of the State Programme for Health Development "Salamatty Kazakhstan" (Healthy Kazakhstan) for 2011-2015. In her opening speech, Health Minister Salidat Kairbekova said the State Programme covers all major issues of achieving sustainable development in health protection and improving the demographic indicators of the population. Its main objective is to improve the health of citizens and to form an effective healthcare system, she said.
The organizers held several workshops on the most pressing problems of embryology in the ART. Using telemedicine, the forum attendees witnessed the operations that were carried out in real time in clinics in Moscow and Clermont-Ferrand, France.
At the conference Kairbekova also met Rene Frydman, a prominent French scientist, physician, and a professor, and concluded an agreement under which specialists from Kazakhstan will receive training in France.
Since 2010, Kazakhstan became one of the few countries that allocated funds for in-vitro fertilisation in the framework of guaranteed free medical care. In 2010 the number of treatments funded by the state amounted to 100 cycles. Under the State Programme "Salamatty Kazakhstan" the IVF volume will increase to 750 cycles by 2015. Patients can receive such treatment in both public and private centres, according to Kairbekova.
According to the Ministry of Health, more than 20,000 couples in Kazakhstan have been treated with methods of assisted reproduction. As a result, about 6,000 long-awaited children were born to families that were previously considered infertile. The effectiveness of practiced programmes meets the standards of leading European centres and exceeds 40%. Since 2008, Kazakhstan's data are represented in the European register of ART.
The first IVF laboratory in Kazakhstan was opened in 1995 in the Almaty Centre for Human Reproduction and a year later the first child was born. Today, the country has 10 IVF centres, including three state centres. New ART laboratories are expected to open soon.
Within 16 years, Kazakhstan has mastered the latest reproductive technologies of treating both female and male infertility. It is successfully applying methods of cryopreservation of embryos, programmes with donor gametes, and surrogacy. Since 2007, it has effectively run the pre-implantation diagnosis of genetic disorders in embryos before the pregnancy. The ART has been widely used as the only effective method for treatment of severe male infertility.
