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 It has to advertise this with caution. China's strict regulation of
its IVF market forbids gender selection, requires birth licenses and
proof of marriage, and prohibits some more advanced procedures -
rules that have pushed patients to go overseas or seek treatment in
unregulated clinics at home.
Demand for IVF in China is expected to rise after Beijing scrapped
its controversial one-child policy in October, which will strain
already-crowded state-run hospitals but create opportunities for
overseas health centers, firms helping train local doctors - and
underground clinics.
"Here we can do IVF with gender selection and you don't need lots of
documentation," a doctor at the Guangdong clinic surnamed Hao told
Reuters, adding there had been a 50 percent jump in consultations
since the one-child policy announcement.
She said many of her patients were younger women opting for IVF so
they could choose a boy, a traditional preference. The doctor did
not give her full name and "Nanfang" is a common name for businesses
in southern China.
Beijing's tight control makes it hard for private firms to operate
IVF clinics in the country, but growing demand for doctors and
specialists has created other gaps in the market.
"Training to help up-skill clinicians and embryologists to treat the
patients is definitely a big growth area," said Jason Spittle,
global director of training at U.S. medical device maker Cook
Medical, which has a reproductive health unit.
"China is set to be the biggest IVF market in the world, probably
within the next couple of years."
LOOKING OVERSEAS
Chinese couples who have the financial means often go abroad to the
United States, Australia, Thailand and Vietnam for IVF.
"The biggest driver is that there are so many hoops to jump through
to get IVF treatment here," said Mr Lei, a China-based intermediary
who helps patients go to Thailand, who like many Chinese was
reluctant to give his full name to a reporter.
Rising Chinese demand for fertility treatments is therefore good
news for overseas clinics such as Australia-based Monash IVF Group
and Virtus Health or Superior A.R.T. in Thailand, where 30-40
percent of patients come from China.
"Our clinic has prepared Chinese-speaking staff to coordinate with
rising number of Chinese patients," said Superior A.R.T. deputy
manager Arnon Sinsawasdi, adding the end of the one-child policy
should give business a boost.
IVF Australia, part of Virtus Health, plays on Chinese demand for
the latest procedures with a Chinese-language website advertising
its "cutting-edge technology" to help parents "achieve their dream
of having a child".
"Lots of patients go to these places just because they have unique
demands. For example domestically they can't do things like
surrogacy or gender selection," said Li Yuan, director of
reproductive medicine center at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital.
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Non-commercial surrogacy is allowed in Australia, while the United
States permits gender selection. Thailand, though, has been cracking
down on both practices to close loopholes that have lured patients
from overseas.
OVERLOADED CLINICS
Patients and doctors in China said state IVF centers were often
over-stretched - little surprise given each clinic serves around 3.8
million people, compared with 700,000 people per clinic in the
United States, health ministry data show.
"Clinics are so busy it's unbearable. Whichever hospital you go to
it's always rammed with people," said a junior doctor at an IVF
clinic in Shanghai, who asked not to be named.
This creates a market for unregulated providers, who advertise their
offerings online and on social media platforms, while avoiding
detection by overworked watchdogs despite a recent crackdown on the
market.
"In the past few years our checks in some areas haven't been strict
enough, routine oversight has been lax, and strikes against illegal
behavior have fallen short," China's health ministry said in a
statement in July.
"That's led to chaos in the assisted reproduction market."
Patient numbers are still climbing too. There were nearly half a
million treatment "cycles" in 2013 at 356 approved clinics, compared
with just under 200,000 cycles that year in the higher-value U.S.
market.
Despite the growth, though, many still struggle to get access to IVF
at all: poorer provinces have few clinics and many can't afford a
pricetag that starts at 30,000 yuan ($4,697).
"You can't use state insurance, it's all paid out-of-pocket," said
Ms Cui, 37, a financial worker in Dalian who underwent successful
IVF treatment in 2013.
"I was lucky that it worked in one go, but many people try a number
of times which mean it's even more expensive."
($1 = 6.3876 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Additional reporting by Alexandra Harney and SHANGHAI newsroom,
Byron Kaye in SYDNEY, Khettiya Jittapong in BANGKOK; Editing by Alex
Richardson)
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