The birth of Louise Brown, the world’s first test-tube baby in England in 1978 proved to be a godsend opportunity for the young Dr Umesh Nandani Jindal who worked in the Infertility programme of World Health Organization at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh. She was greatly affected by the plight of the infertile women who suffered used to immensely suffer from emotional, psychosexual and social problems. Dr Jindal had already made her name by her scientific contributions on the subject with some widely read publications in the International Journals (i. Jindal UN, Dhall GI. Psychosexual problems of infertile women in India. Int J Fertil. 1990;35:222-5; ii. Jindal UN, Gupta AN. Social problems of infertile women in India. Int J Fertil. 1989;34:30-3).
Dr Jindal, the founder of Jindal IVF started with assisted reproduction technology (ART) in 1989 and began with intra-uterine insemination (IUI) before moving to the actual in-vitro techniques. Success with IUI was highly encouraging. Those with severely damaged or absent fallopian tubes, refractory infertility as well as those with unexplained or male-factor infertility required one of the many IVF techniques. In vitro technology was somewhat difficult to establish in the absence of availability of technical expertise, air-sterilization, culture media and other facilities. IVF in the 1990s involved a lot of individual interest, involvement and hard efforts. Every step was hard, especially in the IVF laboratory. The economic factor was as significant as the lack of other essential requirements.
With consistent efforts, the first test-tube baby at Chandigarh, North India was born in 1996 at the best IVF-center. Thereafter, there was no stopping. We introduced all other advanced technologies soon after the same were introduced elsewhere in the world. We introduced cryo-freezing, fertility preservation, blastocyst culture and vitrification, testicular sperm extraction and ovum donation etc. We have now introduced PGD (Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis) in cases with appropriate genetic disorders.
Today, the center can proudly claim of the best IVF laboratory with expertise, facilities and techniques of international standards. The best IVF center has received several awards and honours for its achievements. The center regularly contributes to the spread of knowledge in various related fields in the medical community. The team of consultants and Fellows in Infertility doing diploma with Amity University continue to do clinical research. Dr Jindal has also guided theses and research projects of several Diploma Fellows. She has also served as a Guide for PhD theses of eminent national (Punjabi University, Patiala) and international (University of Adelaide, Australia) universities. (i. Mahajan NN, Turnbull DA, Davies MJ, Jindal UN, Briggs NE, Taplin JE. Adjustment to infertility: the role of intrapersonal and interpersonal resources/vulnerabilities. Hum Reprod. 2009 Apr; 24(4):906-12; ii. Mahajan NN, Turnbull DA, Davies MJ, Jindal UN, Briggs NE, Taplin JE. Changes in affect and state anxiety across an in vitro fertilization/ intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycle. Fertil Steril. 2010 Feb; 93(2):517-26).
We have entered 34th year of our inception. The overall scene is different now. Technology and commercialization have empowered the society and made it possible to avail of ART and IVF with greater ease and comfort. The Government of India has rightly introduced new regulatory requirements to prevent mushrooming and exploitation which had unfortunately creeped in some of the services. We at the best and the oldest IVF center in the region continue to aim for higher and higher. Our success rates in all the fields and in the procedures related to infertility are consistently comparable to the best in the world. We work with full zeal and enthusiasm for our motto: “where excellence and ethics meet”.
