Changes about IVF are quietly happening.
In February 2022, Beijing unified pricing for 53 assisted reproductive technology projects, and included 16 projects such as intrauterine artificial insemination and embryo transfer.
That is to say, IVF-related technologies are often included in medical insurance.
At the end of the 1980s, Chinese mainland first case of IVF was born in the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University;
In 1996, the first second-generation IVF baby in China using "intracytoplasmic sperm microinjection technology" was born;
In the following two decades, the genetic diagnosis technology of embryo implantation in China has gradually improved.
The development of policies and technologies has made the road to ivy reduction and prevention of ivory infants easier.
But when we turn our perspective back to specific families, especially women who have almost taken on the responsibility of procreation alone, the physical and mental suffering is universal.
Induction of ovulation, egg retrieval, sperm retrieval, completion of the in vitro binding of sperm and eggs, making embryos, and then transferred to the uterus, the whole process is long and complex, and each step has the risk of failure.
40%-60%, which is the overall pregnancy rate of IVF, it becomes the beginning of hope and pain at the same time.
In Changsha, Hunan, near several well-known reproductive hospitals, many family hotels are scattered on both sides of the road.
These innkeepers are regular customers of the hospital, and they accompany the women who come to do IVF every day, taking them to examinations and giving them injections.
Lin Chang, the protagonist of this article, has been running a family hotel since 2012. Now that she's been in the business for ten years, through the small incisions of IVF, she sees a chicken feather in family life.
In the hotel, Lin Chang saw people's efforts for their children, and also witnessed countless bitterness.
Some people can succeed once, and some people do it many times or fail. And those who seem to have a complete result also have their own difficulties.
Although the outcome of the story goes differently, the child is always at the center of the conversation.
Family hotels
Before opening the hotel, Lin Chang sold clothes, opened a restaurant in the university town, and learned Korean with students who often came to eat.
Later, when she saw that a friend around her had made money by opening a family hotel, she began to be moved and decided to join the industry.
The start of the inn is not easy. In this line, the hotel owner has to do not only sit at the front desk to collect money, but also take the new guests to the hospital to help them familiarize themselves with the various examination procedures.
At the beginning, in order to be familiar with the nearby hospital, Lin Chang took time to go to the hospital every day to see what steps others had to do IVF and where each examination was done.
Competition near the hospital was fierce, and sometimes when she asked her peers where a certain test was, others would deliberately mislead her and make her run back and forth upstairs and downstairs.
After getting familiar with the hospital, Lin Chang went to sell the hotel. She took the initiative to take patients to the examination, helped them queue up, and then told them that they could stay in a family hotel if they needed.
But many times, she took patients with her in the hospital for a day and failed to win a customer. She had thick cocoons on her feet, all of which had been run out of those years.
Xiangya Hospital, Central South University
Later, acquaintances recommended each other, and Lin Chang's business slowly improved.
In the face of such a special group of guests, Lin Chang's mobile phone should be kept on standby 24 hours a day, because accidents can happen at any time.
Especially for pregnant mothers who have just completed an embryo transfer, the fetus will be less stable in the first few months.
Often, guests find themselves bleeding in the middle of the night, and they dial Lin Chang's phone in a panic, and when she receives the call, she immediately rushes to the hotel and takes people to the hospital.
Lin Chang knows how difficult the process of ivy tube babies is, after ovulation induction, if the eggs are mature, they need to be retrieved, complete the in vitro binding of sperm and eggs, make embryos, and then transfer them into the woman's uterus.
The whole process is long and complex, and there is a risk of failure at every step. Every time a new guest stayed, Lin Chang accompanied them to the hospital, and would carefully record the doctor's explanation and tell them over and over again.
But not everyone can understand her. When Lin Chang handed out business cards to others in the hospital, it was common to suffer cold eyes.
Once she met a couple in the waiting area, she walked up to each other and handed them business cards, telling them that if they needed accommodation, they could come to their own hotel.
The woman in the seat glanced at her, grabbed her business card and smashed it on the ground, giving her a vicious look.
Lin Chang still can't forget that look, when the topic of children tears off the last fig leaf of the family, it may be a harsh requirement for people to remain polite.
Lin Chang was in the hospital, and some people took her kindness for granted. Lin Chang once received a girl with depression, and after knowing the girl's condition, she would always pay special attention to it.
Sometimes the medical staff spoke more directly, the tone was slightly heavier, "her hair is erect one by one", Lin Chang had to help her communicate.
When the girl was hospitalized, Lin Chang saw that there was no family escort around her, and it was not convenient to change clothes, so he told her that if there was a need to change clothes, she could hand them over to her, and she took them home to wash. Worried that the girl would not eat well, she delivered three meals a day and bought her fruit.
It was July, it was the time when the sun was poisonous, and after a week, Lin Chang tanned a lot.
After returning from the hospital, the girl stayed in the inn for a while. One day, she suddenly told Lin Chang that she was going to accompany a relative to the bed and would not come back for the time being.
But when it was time for the girl to go to the hospital for examination, Lin Chang was worried that the girl would forget, so he sent a message and called to remind her, but the phone could not be called. Later, Lin Chang learned that the original girl secretly changed an inn, and she no longer needed her memory.
But sometimes, Lin Chang can also feel that he is needed.
In her inn, there was a girl who had done many test tubes and failed, and she almost gave up in the end.
Lin Chang comforted her for a long time, telling her that she would never be the worst one. In the end, the girl persevered, successfully became a mother, and she came to Lin Chang's inn to prepare for the second child.
She told Lin Chang that if it were not for her encouragement, she might have given up long ago.
child
After running a family hotel for so many years, Lin Chang has seen many people and stories, and children are always the center of the topic. Children have different meanings for different families.
Lin Chang once met a family of five from Guizhou, a couple who did not look young, bringing their daughter, son-in-law and grandson to stay.
At that time, Lin Chang was confused, she did not know who was the person who was going to do IVF. After asking, she learned that the person who was going to do IVF was actually the mother in her 50s.
She had three daughters and a son, and when the son died in a car accident when he was 20 years old, the party responsible for the accident lost some of their money, so the couple decided to take the money to do IVF and have another son.
But she had been on the sidelines for more than a year. Lin Chang advised her that the risk of this situation was too great, they still had three daughters, there was no need to take risks.
The woman told Lin Chang that if she did not have a son, she would be looked down upon and criticized by her neighbors.
Lin Chang persuaded them not to move, or let them go to the hospital, the doctor told the woman, first adjust the menstruation, but the menstrual adjustment at the same time, may cause cancer. Hearing the doctor say this, the couple was frightened and immediately returned home.
People waiting in the hospital for treatment
There are also some families who want to have a child with the strength of the whole family.
Seven or eight years ago, a young couple from Shaoyang were introduced by acquaintances to Lin Chang's inn. After Lin Chang took them to the examination, the doctor gave a plan and explained the cost of doing IVF, which requires 25,000.
The couple made a mistake at that time, and they told Lin Chang that the family could not come up with so much money for the time being, and they could only wait until they had enough money to do it.
Later, the two men went to work in the field for a year, and the next year they saved enough money to return to Changsha, but the results of the inspection a year ago were invalidated, and they could only spend another six thousand to re-examine.
There was also a middle-aged couple from the mountains of Guizhou, when the doctor considered that the woman was older, the ovarian environment and egg quality were not very good, and suggested that they do the third generation of IVF.
That is, genetic screening before embryo implantation to minimize the birth rate of deformed babies, which also means higher surgical costs, they need to prepare at least 70,000 or 80,000.
In order to have a child of their own, the two people still signed a contract. But at that time, they only had 20,000 or 30,000 in their hands.
After Lin Chang knew their situation, he ran to the hospital again, told the doctor the actual situation, and asked whether the woman's chromosomes were abnormal at present, if the risk was relatively small if it was normal, whether the plan could be changed.
After confirming that there was no abnormality in the woman's chromosomes, the doctor agreed to Lin Chang's request and readjusted the plan.
On the wall of Lin Chang Hotel hangs a pennant sent by a customer
This is only past the first hurdle. That afternoon Lin Chang was chatting with everyone in the hotel, the couple usually smiled and squinted, and when they came back, they would greet them, but when they entered the door that day, the two people entered the house without saying a word.
When it came time for dinner, she noticed that the man had gone out without much eating, and Lin Chang sensed that something was wrong and followed out.
Walking to the top of the stairs, she saw the man hiding behind and crying. After asking, I learned that the effect of the injection in the previous few days was not good, and there were almost no mature follicles.
The doctor told them that if this had been the case, the entire process might need to be terminated. Once terminated, the equivalent of the previous fees will be paid in vain. Lin Chang could only comfort him, persevere, and maybe the next time he would succeed.
Luckily, they eventually got the follicles, the embryo transfer was a success, and a month later, the fetal image stabilized and the two were ready to go home.
Before leaving, they wrapped Lin Chang in a red envelope of 880 yuan, but she finally refused.
Unknown result
In Lin Chang's family hotel, there are posters of babies hanging on the walls of almost every room.
Every family who comes here looks forward to having a child, but no one knows what the outcome will be.
A few years ago, a couple who had been doing IVF in Guangdong for seven or eight years found Lin Chang and said they wanted to try it in Changsha. After Lin Chang took them for examination, the doctor said that the quality of the man's sperm was not very good, which would affect the effect of embryo transfer.
The couple underwent three embryo transfers in Changsha, but each time it didn't take long for the embryos to stop developing.
On the last attempt, the girl finally became pregnant, but after two months she suddenly stopped and could only clear the palace.
After tossing and turning for a long time, the girl's physical condition was not as good as before, and the in-laws felt that she was not in good health and could not conceive.
When the girl returned to her in-laws' house, at the dinner table, her mother-in-law asked her if she could let her husband have a child with someone else and bring it home to her. Her husband was also around at the time and did not speak. She knew it was they forcing themselves into a divorce.
In order to have children, after so many years of hard work, she never expected this to be the result.
The flow of people in the hospital
There is also a young couple from Guizhou, and the process of IVF is not smooth. After several failed egg retrievals, they deliberately went to Hengshan to worship the bodhisattva.
In the next egg retrieval, the wife successfully retrieved 12 eggs, and 10 matching were successful. The doctor gave a plan, in order to increase the success rate, first transplant a fresh embryo, and then transplant a cultivated blastocyst after a few days.
That morning, when the girl went to the hospital for an embryo transfer, Lin Chang was changing her sheets.
Suddenly the phone rang, and she saw that it was the girl who called, "As soon as I looked at her phone number, my heart was cold." Years of experience have told Lin Chang that the general call back on the day of the embryo transfer must be in a bad situation.
There was a cry on the phone, and Lin Chang guessed correctly. She asked the girl to wait in the hospital for a while, and before going out, she specifically instructed the other residents not to ask anything when the girl returned.
She trotted all the way to the hospital, saw the girl holding back tears waiting for her, Lin Chang knew that she had a good face, embarrassed to cry in front of others, "I said it was okay, there are too many people crying in the hospital, don't be afraid, if you want to cry, you can cry out", the girl cried out.
On that day, the girl's successful matching of embryos was not good, and the best one rated by the doctor was 70 points, and the probability of success was not very high. Lin Chang saw that she was emotionally unstable, so he asked her to go back to rest at noon and wait for the afternoon to come back to the operation time.
People waiting outside the hospital clinic
After the transplant in the afternoon, the girl returned to the inn. At dinner, she received a phone call, and as she spoke, tears suddenly flowed.
The family told her that her grandmother had passed away and that she was the child that her grandmother had brought up. Lin Chang was anxious in his heart, and all the bad news was piled up.
After embryo transfer, if the mother's mood is not good, it is likely to affect the development of the embryo.
Fortunately, fate took care of the girl this time. A few days later, the girl went to the hospital and transplanted another cultivated blastocyst. This time both embryos were developing, and she was pregnant with twins. After the baby was born, she gave Lin Chang the good news, a man and a woman.
Lin Chang thought that the story should be the perfect ending at this point. But a year later, she suddenly saw the girl's circle of friends and said that the sky had fallen.
When her two children were three days apart, when she was one year old, her husband suddenly died of a heart attack. He only went to Beijing for training a few days ago, and if there is no accident, he can be promoted when he comes back.
Lin Chang launched a donation in the large group of family hotels, hoping to help a little.
She knew that the couple's family conditions were average, the girl's husband was an only child, and there was a mother to take care of in the family, and this time the burden fell on the girl.
Marriage and family
At the family hotel, Lin Chang witnessed the division and integration of the family.
Because children cause family conflicts, there are not a few. But there are also some families that do not actually have major contradictions, but because the process of doing IVF is difficult, the lack of communication between husband and wife, both parties will inevitably have emotions.
In this case, Lin Chang is both persuaded and not persuaded. Until now, lin chang is most willing to talk to people about a marriage she successfully saved.
The girl had been injected six or seven times, but each time she could get very few follicles, and by the end there were almost no follicles.
The girl was very depressed when she returned. It was just in time for the New Year, and the man's elders came and talked about it. The girl told her husband that she would go to the Civil Affairs Bureau for a divorce after the fifteenth day of the first month, and she could not hold on.
After Lin Chang knew, he called her to persuade her to try again and give the family a chance. Later, the girl's husband called Lin Chang and told her that there was no big contradiction between the two people, but the girl's psychological pressure was very large, and he wanted Lin Chang to help enlighten her.
Under the persuasion of Lin Chang, the girl went to the hospital again a year later, and the result was particularly smooth, and she also conceived a child as she wished.
Rooms at Lin Chang Hotel
Some of the problems are because of the child, but more problems have nothing to do with the child.
Lin Chang has seen many girls being bullied by their in-laws after marriage, and when they are pregnant, they feel that they can finally turn over, and their attitude towards their husbands and in-laws has become worse and worse.
The in-laws no longer care because the daughter-in-law is pregnant with a child, and try to meet all the requirements of the daughter-in-law. But such a marriage is difficult to maintain, and the couples Lin Chang has seen almost all end in divorce.
There is also a couple, the wife found out that her husband was cheating during ivory, and the cheating object Lin Chang also knew. Lin Chang advised her that there was no need to maintain this relationship.
But the woman could not bear it, and chose to forgive after her husband confessed her mistake, and later gave birth to twins for him. As a result, when the child was 4 years old, the two people still divorced, because the man cheated.
And the girl who was forced to divorce by her in-laws and husband finally chose to terminate the relationship.
During that time, Lin Chang received her phone calls almost every day, and when she answered the phone, the girl was crying. Lin Chang advised her that instead of hesitating to cry, it was better to break it earlier.
She finally listened to Lin Chang's words, made up her mind to divorce, and renovated her home again, ready to start a new life.
After the divorce, the mother-in-law still spread rumors everywhere in the same village that she could not have children and ruined her reputation.
But these have finally become the past, and the girl has been in contact with Lin Chang since she divorced. Slowly, she began a new relationship and had a child of her own. This time, it was the result of natural conception.