How much should Hong Kong pay for IVF treatments? Couples must weigh cost of test-tube babies as city reluctant to raise subsidies
- Couples, specialists say more resources needed to cut waiting time for women to start treatments
- Experts urge couples to do fertility checks when young and decide if they should start a family sooner
Hong Kong insurance agent Flora Chan, 42, has lost count of the number of miscarriages she has had since getting married in 2009.
She conceived naturally multiple times, only for each to end tragically within as little as five weeks and as much as 11 weeks.
After years of disappointment and devastation, Chan and her self-employed husband, also 42, sought in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment in 2016 at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin.
To skip the long queue, which could take months, they chose to receive the treatment as a private service, which meant paying about HK$200,000 (US$25,528) in total, but the miscarriages continued.
She then turned to a private specialist, who ran tests which identified a genetic abnormality and she was prescribed medication alongside the IVF treatments.
That cost the couple HK$300,000 more, but Chan finally conceived and went all the way to give birth. Their son is now a healthy three-year-old.
