Dr. Bhavna Banga breaks the IVF stigmas this International Women’s Day

There are so many stigmas and stereotypes attached with respect to women. This International Women’s Day, to break such misconceptions around IVF, Dr. Bhavna Banga, Associate Director – IVF Program & Head IVF, Max Healthcare, Gurgaon & Noida talks with us.

Excerpts from an interaction with Tarun Jain.

Why and how you chose this specific field in the profession?

Dr. Bhavna: Coming from a family of doctors, I also had the aim to pursue this profession, wherein not only a person gets immense respect and blessings, but also it is a stable career with good amount of monetary benefits.

The main attraction for me to choose this field was that I would be capable of spreading joy and happiness to the families who are the search of hope. Fertility concerns do pose tremendous unseen pressures on the couple that are often ignored, hence, it served as a driving force to opt a super specialization in reproductive medicine post my masters in obstetric & Gynaecology. The purpose is to provide a dedicated holistic care with evidence based medicine to optimize the reproductive outcomes.

The need of the hour is, due to exponential increase in the fertility issues, to understand the emotional aspect of this situation too.

What are the negative views attached with IVF?

Dr. Bhavna: The most I have come across:

• IVF is against the natural process of conceiving.
• It’s a very painful procedure.
• Gametes ( egg / Sperm ) could be changed without the knowledge of patients.

People feel that not being able to give birth to a child is completely a woman’s fault. How do you make them understand about the issues that aren’t in their control?

Dr. Bhavna: By sharing the statistics. Science suggests that male partner contributes to 30-40 % of the total infertility cases as the embryo is formed by the union of egg & sperm with equal contribution. The process of human reproduction is still enigmatic where the medical science has not yet been able to completely overcome the implantation process in terms of technology. That’s why the results are close to 50-60 percent even with the best of technology available.

Being a woman, how do you manage your personal and professional life?

Dr. Bhavna: As a reproductive specialist, it does give me the flexibility of working for fixed hours and avoiding emergencies as I do not take care of patients who have conceived.
However, there is huge pressure & heartbreaking moments wherein each patient is coming forward for treatment with lots of hopes & trust in our efforts.
So, I need to be motivated & positive myself to be able to spread it to my patients.
I try to do so by motivational reading, yoga & meditation.

How do you feel about celebrating women’s day? How can it be celebrated in the correct way?

Dr. Bhavna: Women’s Day should be celebrated each day wherein we women should support our fellow colleagues. There should be a constant inspiration and motivation for every women to spread their wings and fly high.