With growing use of technology and adapting to a swift lifestyle we have unwillingly inculcatedinnumerable unhealthy practices. According to studies the reproduction capacity of humans is declining at a faster rate than ever, wherein the aid of medical assistance appears to be inevitable.

We have with us Dr.Gauri Agarwal (MD, DNB, and MBBS):She is the Founder of Seeds of Innocence IVF & Fertility Centre chain and Genestrings Laboratory. Dr. Gauri is a world-renowned infertility specialist with 15 plus years of experience in this field. Native to Kanpur, she was born in a nuclear middle-class family with her parents and two siblings.Dr. Agarwal could not help but recall about her father’s dream of her becoming a doctor. Herparents haveimmensely encouraged her and her siblings, a brother and a sister, to opt and pursue best-in-class education. After completing her senior secondary from St. Marys, Kanpur, she proceeded towards medical education and pursued her M.B.B.S from Bharti Vidyapeeth (2007) and thereafter a DNB from KJ Institute, Coimbatore (2012). Dr. Gauri was awarded a fellowship in IVFin Ghent University, Belgium (2012),and continued to further specialise in Embryology and Reproductive Medicine from National University of Singapore(2013).A pivotal decisive factor for studying IVF and medicine was her sister’s unfortunate failure to conceive. Inspired with an idea of bettering lives of a million mothers, it was her vision coloured with passion that led her way to become a leading IVF Specialist in India.

After successful completion of her academics, Dr. Gauri got married in a family of devout doctors, and the founders of the Yashoda Group of Hospitals where she was endowed with a choice of joining her husband, in theGhaziabad Centre of Yashoda Hospitals. However, with her determination to pave her own path, she began initiating small health and awareness camps in rural areas like Dadri, HapolandLoni, where she would encourage education and right medical knowledge to patients, and welcomed the ones who wanted to proceed with IVFto visit her hospital in Ghaziabad. With continuous efforts in these initiatives, Dr Gauri soon managed to run 50 IVF cycles per month, and attained high success rates where majority of healthy conceptions were achieved in the very first IVF cycle. Soon, her gradual progression in the market began with a word of mouthabout better treatment through Dr.GauriAgarwal, which acquired her local fame and eventually led to the establishment of Seeds of Innocence, a bootstrapped IVF chain that started with one centre in 2015 in Delhi's Malviya Nagar and is currently running 14+ centres across North India. She is also the Founder of Genestrings, a state-of-the-art Genetic Diagnostic Laboratory. A visionary in the field of IVF, she is known as a pioneer in implementing path breaking research & use of new technologies/techniques like Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) and Genetic Screening (PGS/ PGD) to achieve success rates of up to 78% along with an assurance of Healthy Term Pregnancy and Genetically Healthy Baby.

Seeds of Innocence, Malviya Nagar is a premier IVF Centre where Dr. Gauri has establisheda team of multidisciplinary clinicians including highly experienced fetal medicine experts, and shares with us informative insights about the various technologies and expertise at her centres.

Starting with information about ‘In Vitro fertilization’ (IVF) -“It is a type of an Assistive Reproductive Technology (ART), which is a magical process possessing the elixir to a new life. In the course of some 12 days medicines are given to the expected mother and then when the eggs are formed in the ovaries, the healthy eggs are retrieved with the help of needles and then inseminated with the husband’s sperms and then when the embryo is formed it is transferred back to the mother’s uterus after 15 days.

Some common indications for IVF treatment are:

- Low sperm count. - 

- Blocked fallopian tube. - 

- When eggs don’t form. -

- Unknown reasons for not conceiving. -

Her leading chain of IVF centresare capable of performing various methods of assisted reproductive technologies including the processIntra Uterine Insemination (IUI) which is performed on a regular basis. IUI is the simplest technique in the field of assisted reproductive technologies, where, husband’s healthy sperms are collected and directly placed inside the uterus of the femaleafter checking all parameters to increase the chances of conception.

Dr Gauri Agarwal further shared her insights about surrogacy being a blessing for the couple. It is often preferred by couples where the lady is unable to become a mother due to various conditions like weak uterus, fibroids, diabetic lady, absent uterus, endometriosis and other similar conditions. IVF is a treated as a imminent part of surrogacy, where it involves injecting the female with eggs stimulating hormones and then creating healthy eggs. These eggs are retrieved and are inseminated with the partner’s sperm and are transferred to the uterus of another healthy woman, making the dream of begetting a child possible for couples. Conclusively, it is a process where the embryo belongs of the couple in the womb of another lady.

Dr. Gauri further stated that fertility power of a female decrease with passing age which can be checked through use of an Anti-Mullerian Hormone(AMH) test. Therefore, during the most fertile years of life, it is a wise call to freeze the eggs.Seeds of Innocence also offers services to freeze eggs whereegg inducing hormones are injected to help in the formation of healthy eggs,whereafter,the same are retrieved and stored. In futurewhen the patient feels ready, maybe after years,the eggs can be used to inseminate it with her partner’s sperm for becoming a mother.

She explains, that nowadays along with female infertility, a sharp rise is seen in the male infertility too. The count has gone down to a considerable level. She adds the main reasons are stress, peer pressure, pollution, poor dietary habits, using high frequency electronics especially working with laptops, irregular sleeping patterns, alcohol and other chronic diseases. At her highly specialised centresvarious hormonal assays are conducted, and testicular biopsy is performed. Post this biopsy healthy sperm is retrieved and inseminated in the egg of the female partner. This entire process is known as ICSI. She adds that all her centres have highly efficient Andrologists and Team of Counsellors who provide complete end-to-end guidance to educate and assist couples, and are vigilant in regularly updating the centre with latest technologies.

With much comfort Dr. Gauri shared a personal incident from her early years of practicing as an IVF specialist. It was in one of her awareness campswhere encountered a patient from an extremely humble background who wanted to conceive. The couple had sold all their belongingsto conceive a child. Dr. Gauri performed the IVF procedure and the results turned out to be positive,however after 18-20 weeks of pregnancy, it was known through regular tests that the baby had ‘Down Syndrome’.Unfortunately, the couple had to undergo abortion. Itwas thence, when she realised the need of a technology that would scan the abnormality before placing the embryo in the uterus. Soon after, these scanners were acquired from the international market and were made available to all the Seeds of Innocence IVF Centres, where tests like PGTA, PGTM, NIPT and many more micro-arrays are performed. These are primarily non-invasive procedures where the mother’s blood is scanned for potential genetic threats to the baby. Dr.Gauri conducts social campaigns, runs free consultations at remote places, and guides the couple to inhibit the belief in IVFas a life-saving option. She tells us that she has faced many challenges, failures and drawbacks which largely relate to the taboos; some couples even in their mid-40 seek permission from their parents to undergo treatments. However, such reluctance is subsided with positive results which make the patients trust the doctor and medical science.

Talking of the importance of hygiene, Dr Gauri hopes to spread awareness in her health camps in rural area, where she educates and discusses the importance of usage of sanitary napkins, techniques to discard them. She also advocates that knowledge on usage of contraceptives should be given at an early age. In her opinion, every Primary Health Centre should have an infertility clinic so at least the right knowledge is dispensed to the people.

Cherishing the journey so far she thanked the Almighty for her supportive family members, and her hardworking team. The only mantra she follows is ‘not fooling the patients and be true to them to see exceptional results.’

" Honesty is often very hard, Truth is often very painful" 

- Dr. Gauri Agarwal ( (MD, DNB and MBBS)

 Currently, Seeds of Innocence has 14 IVF centres across northern states of India.

• Delhi NCR
• Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh
• Faridabad, Haryana
• Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
• Bihar, Patna
• Ranchi, Jharkhand
• Haldwani, Uttaranchal
• Guwahati Assam

The leading chain of IVF centres will soon mark the launch of the first overseas centre in Muscat, Oman with one mother unit.