january, 2019 | The Health
highlight
LPPKN’s
role to
increase
fertility
rate
The National Population and Family
Development Board, or locally known as
LPPKN, offers fertility services as early as
1979. Their services are aimed to couples
who yet to have children despite the desire
to, as well as the ones who wants to add
children into their lives.
The treatments provided by LPPKN
have always been much less expensive than
the ones offered in private facilities. And
as of 2017, around 31,405 couples have
received treatment, with 3,830 successful
pregnancies.
SPECIALIZED TREATMENTS
AND PROCEDURES
Treatments are offered based on the fac-
tors as to why the couples are unsuccessful
in bearing children. Once the causes have
been identified during counselling, medi-
cal officers will then recommend suitable
treatment. The fertility treatments being
offered include:
• Assistive fertility medication
• Intrauterine Insemination - IUI
• Assisted Reproductive Technology-
ART, which are InVitro Fertilisation
(IVF) and Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm
Injection (ICSI)
• Sperm Aspiration
• Sperm and Embryo Freezing
• Frozen Embryo Transfer
On average, around 6000 to 8000 hus-
bands and wives get treatment at LPPKN
annually, where around 800 to 1000 of
them being first-timers.
The rate of pregnancy through IUI is
between 15 to 20 percent, whereas with
15
15
ART, the rate is between 30 to 35 percent.
LPPKN AND NGO
PARTNERSHIP
By principal, LPPKN highly encourages the
inclusion of non-government organiza-
tions (NGO) in the fertility issues of the
country.
In 2017, a program called ‘Fostering
Love Weaving Hope’ received support
from the Selangor and Kuala Lumpur
Endometriosis Association (MyEndosis),
an NGO poised in assisting couples with
fertility issues due to the condition to get
treatment at LPPKN or other facilities.
LPPKN also actively plans and orga-
nizes programs which aim to instil the
importance of fertility, and the ways to get
treatment for the general public.
TABLE 4: RATE OF WOMEN
WORKFORCE
YEAR WOMEN IN WORKFORCE
2000 47.2
2010 46.8
2011 47.9
2012 49.5
2013 52.4
2014 53.6
2015 54.1
2016 54.3
2017 54.7
Source: Department of Statistics Malaysia
the Ministry of Education in 2016 shows
that women has been dominating the
students enrolment to both the Public
and Private Institute of Higher Learning
(IPTA and IPTS) from the year 2013 to
2015, as seen on Table 3.
This is backed by statistics retrieved
by Department of Statistics Malaysia
(DOSM) which shows the rate of women
workforce increasing from 46.8 percent
in 2010 to 54.7 percent in 2017.
No need to delay
Delaying marriage will inadvertently
shorten one’s reproductive lifespan,
and will result in lower fertility rate as a
whole. Moreover, the decrease in fertility
rate is closely linked to the increase of the
cost of living – leading to hardship faced
by today’s parents.
The findings from the Research ‘Fer-
tility at The Crossroad: Children Now,
Later or Never’ done by LPPKN in 2011
sees the increase in cost for education,
partnered with a single household’s
financial standing, as the main factor
in determining if families wants more
children or not.
And for young parents nowadays,
having children means becoming a suf-
ficient financial source from the moment
the child is born all through them finish-
ing their education at the highest level.
– The Health
Malaysian women
late to become mothers
S
Dr Eeson Sinthamony.
tudies done by the Department of Statistics Malaysia
(DOSM) found that women in Malaysia are having chil-
dren later in life.
From 2001 to 2015, the minimum age for mothers who
give birth to their first children has risen from 26.6 to 27.7
years old. This proves that in average, women in Malaysia are
delaying their time to become mothers.
According to Dr Eeson Sinthamony, President of the
Malaysia Obstetrics and Gynaecology Association, women
who wants children needs to plan their future ahead of time
and understand their anatomy better.
“There are various options to choose from nowadays to help
them plan for a child later in life, such as the AMH test and egg
freezing,” says Dr Eeson
AMH Test
The AMH test is a simple blood test which shows the level of
fertility in women. The Anti-Müllerian Hormone blood level
is used as the indicator for how many eggs are left which can
be fertilized. It is a vital consideration factor for women who
are planning to get pregnant later or having fertility problems.
Egg freezing
According to Dr Eeson, if one has doubts on whether she can
still have a child in her later years, there is a solution to it. It
is called egg freezing.
“Women will lose a number of eggs as the years go by. For
example, if you have plans to become a mother in the near
future, and the AMH test shows that the number of eggs you
have are in the lower ranges, you may want to consider extract-
ing and freezing them so that you may still have a chance later
on,” he explaines.
So far, around 50 million couples around the world are infer-
tile, and about 15 percent of women at prime age of pregnancy
are having fertility issues.