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Bringing
IVF to
Women
in Sabah
Growing numbers of
infertility among Sabahan
initiates higher availability
of treatments
PUBLIC FORUM… Dr Cheong Yee Tsing presenting to members of the audience during the
‘Making Pregnancy Possible’ public forum
20
Dr Cheong Yee Tsing
M
ALAYSIA has deemed its
healthcare practices as one of
the top notch services in the
region and the same goes for
its fertility treatment. Hoping to make a
name as a fertility hub, the country’s fertility
treatments also makes a strong foothold in
the land below the wind.
Sabahcare Specialist Clinic, Resident
Consultant Obstetrician Dr Cheong Yee
Tsing who previously spent 17 years at Sabah
Women and Children Hospital highlighted
that the first public in vitro fertilisation (IVF)
centre in the state opened up in 2010.
“The public IVF centre was a publicly
funded programme with strict criteria and
protocol standards that was to be abided
in order to use the funds frugally. Some
of the criteria for a patient to be entitled
include having no children at all to begin
with. Instances where patients were married
before and had a child would be exempted
if they could not bear any in their second
marriage. Women above the age of 40
are not entitled as well. Furthermore, in
terms of costs, the centre had taken upon
itself to subsidise the costs for the fertility
treatments when in actual fact, patients will
have to pay more in a private centre due to
the cost of the medicine.”
inclusive and to allow our services to be
available locally.”
As it was the first dedicated private
centre in the state, the centre serves as an
all-inclusive centre offering a wide range of
fertility services such as fertility investiga-
tions, counselling, ovulation ultrasound
monitoring, induction as well as IVF.
She also pointed out that some people
choose to go for treatments in private cen-
tres as the services provided are similar and
the waiting list is not as long as the ones in
public hospitals. Apart from being comfort-
able, the patient also has access to more than
one consultant.
At her centre, initial con