The Long Wait for Parenthood: Dr Manjunath’s Case for Timely, Ethical Fertility Care

For most couples, walking into a fertility clinic is not the start of a journey but is the culmination of several years of frustration due to unfulfilled promises, social stigma and disappointments that have accumulated through whispered inquiries within families.

As Dr Manjunath C.S., a seasoned specialist in fertility with more than 20 years of experience, has encountered, there are not just medical challenges in assisting people in conceiving; there is also great perseverance displayed by those who are ready to keep trying.

“Timely approach, right decision, financially wise – can make a huge difference in everyone’s fertility journey,” he said.

What makes his work unique is that he has managed to combine modern advances in reproductive medicine and its precision with affordability and friendliness to patients. His philosophy rests on finding the main cause of infertility in every case, conducting the necessary investigations and developing a tailored treatment plan for each couple.

According to Dr Manjunath, his clinics have emphasized the pursuit of the best embryo and preparation of the uterus in order to be more receptive. As stated in his professional questionnaire, his centers claim that there is a 65% live birth rate per cycle and 94% live birth rate over three cycles. It should be taken into consideration that such figures depend on numerous factors like the patient’s age, diagnosis, ovarian reserve, quality of sperms, embryo status and many other factors. However, this is exactly the goal of the doctor – to increase success rate and reduce costs as much as possible for the patient.

This consideration is based on the questions posed by himself early in his professional life. At that time, the low success rate of IVF made him think whether the technology added extra stress to the patients already emotionally and financially broken. With the development of science, the joy of seeing those couples holding their children after years of struggle defined him.

Since that time, there is only one question that determines his actions: can the examination or the therapy bring the best result to this patient?

Such a solution could make a difference in someone’s life. There was once a couple who visited him after five failed IVF cycles and two pregnancy losses due to pregnancy-induced hypertension. He and his team did research on the embryo genetics, immune factors and endometrium preparation. And with their new approach, the couple managed to give birth to a healthy daughter without having any more episodes of hypertension.

There was a patient, aged 44, with very low ovarian reserve, measured by AMH as 0.1. She got ovarian regeneration treatment with bone marrow aspirate concentrate, followed by pooling cycles of IVF. In total, four blastocyst embryos were received and analyzed. Only one of them was genetically normal. After the transfer of this egg, the patient gave birth to a healthy girl.

Such situations for Dr Manjunath are not just victories but a proof that many people waste their precious time, because they don’t know how to get good advice. According to him, during 20 years of his work experience, he witnessed various representatives of the society who wanted to at least conceive a child. What stopped them from getting treatment was not lack of desire but lack of information and access.

This is especially applicable for the middle class, lower middle class, and rural/semi-urban families who feel that IVF treatment is not within their reach. According to Dr Manjunath, this is a misconception and with timely intervention, fertility treatment of high quality can be made accessible outside the metros as well.

This problem is specifically important in the context of South India wherein due to the changes like urbanization, late marriages, job pressures, dietary changes, and sedentary lifestyle, the reproductive health has been affected considerably. Dr Manjunath is concerned about the increasing number of PCOS patients in young women who are facing difficulty in conceiving. He is equally concerned about the fact that there is lack of awareness among people regarding male infertility.

Another point which Dr Manjunath brings up is that India needs to look into the whole matter of fertility from a different angle. This is because over the years, the debate regarding fertility issues in India has been limited to population control. However, low fertility rate and problems of infertility call for a re-evaluation of the issue.

Awareness, he says, can change outcomes. Couples who reach specialists late may face more complex treatment and higher costs. Those counselled earlier may have more options, including fertility preservation. For young professionals delaying parenthood, egg freezing and embryo freezing can offer a practical safeguard, with proper medical advice.

Training doctors has also become central to his work. Dr Manjunath says he has trained more than 300 gynaecologists in infertility and 250 in gynaecological laparoscopic and hysteroscopic surgery. He is associated with ESHRE, ISAR and FOGSI, and trained at Homerton University in London.

There is also a personal dimension to the communities he wants to serve. He speaks with particular respect for Indian Army personnel and government school teachers, saying he would like them to receive fertility treatment at among the lowest possible costs.

At the heart of Dr Manjunath’s message are two warnings: infertility is not only an older-age problem, and egg quality does not remain unchanged into the forties. Time matters. So do ovarian reserve, sperm quality, metabolic health, stress and access to the right care.

Yet his work is ultimately not defined by caution alone. It is defined by the attempt to hold hope and realism together. In fertility medicine, hope cannot be careless; it must be disciplined by evidence. But neither can science become cold. Behind every statistic is a couple measuring life in chances, and behind every successful birth is a story of endurance that began long before the clinic door opened.

To pick up a draggable item, press the space bar. While dragging, use the arrow keys to move the item. Press space again to drop the item in its new position, or press escape to cancel.