Malaysia made our dreams come true
Coming to terms with the fact that you can’t conceive is one of the most difficult things for any couple. Mei Fung and her husband had carefully planned the first years of their marriage and it hadn’t occurred to them that they may have to face some obstacles to conceive but 5 years into their marriage, they realised they had a problem.
It was after 4-5 years of trying to conceive that Mei Fung and her husband realized they couldn’t have a baby.
Mei Fung takes up the story, “Before we got married, we talked a lot about having a child and in fact, after the law changed, we got very excited at the prospect of having two children.”
Her husband joins in, “I was an only child and found it very lonely so when the government changed the one-child rule I really wanted to have 2 children.”
Mei Fung continues, “We had tried for many years to have a baby but nothing seemed to work. Everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong.
My husband was away on business most of the week but when he came home we tried very hard to have a baby but without success. After a couple of years, we went to see a doctor. This was quite hard for us because we’re a bit stubborn!”
“The doctor told us that not only do I have some structural problems with my reproductive system but I also have irregularities with my ovaries and this was messing up my fertility window, making it even harder to identify the best time for us to try for a baby.”
Her husband carries on, “At the same time, I was diagnosed with an underlying medical problem that was causing my sperm count to be very low. I found this very difficult to deal with because it was so unexpected.”
“I was also frustrated because my company had pushed me to take a medical checkup for many years but I had always found an excuse not to. I now realise that if I had gone for regular checkups, the medical problem would have been diagnosed sooner and I wouldn’t have to spend so much money trying to have a baby.
“Soon after, we started researching in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) options in China but to be honest, the options were limited and the centres that we felt comfortable with were expensive and expected us to wait far too long for a consultation, let alone treatment.”
So that’s when we decided to look overseas. We researched a lot of countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and even the United States.
We created a set of criteria to measure each country and scored them based on the following:
- Distance to travel and ease of access to each country
- Quality of the medical facilities of each country
- Training and experience of doctors
- The ability of doctors and nurses to speak in Mandarin
- Cost of getting there, treatment and post-treatment comforts
To be honest it was scary because the prospect of going to a foreign country and trying to communicate with doctors in a foreign language was really intimidating.
We realised straight away that we would be happier in South East Asia because of the weather and shorter travel times. At the same time, we decided that we wanted to be able to communicate in Mandarin.
So that helped us narrow it down to Malaysia and Singapore. We then researched online and found the Malaysia Healthcare website. We emailed them in Mandarin and they replied almost immediately with the information we asked for.
Dedicated Malaysia Healthcare Concierge and Lounge (MCL) personnel will escort you every step of the way.
What we also liked about Malaysia Healthcare was that they assigned someone to be our personal liaison officer. She spoke Mandarin, was really empathetic and listened carefully to our specific needs.
The whole experience was smooth and effortless. Our liaison officer was always reassuring us and talked us through the whole process, answering all our emails promptly and patiently.
This really helped us choose Malaysia and we weren’t disappointed. When we arrived for the first time, we really were met at the plane and after immigration formalities, taken to the lounge to wait for our transport. We were looked after like VIPs.
We were taken to an impressive villa that was to be our home for the next month. We were provided with a chef and driver for the whole month.
The next day we were picked up at 9 am and taken to the hospital. We were really impressed with the hospital, it was very modern while our Doctor was trained in the UK and had 10 years of experience. This was all reassuring.
The success rate of the In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment in Malaysia is high, clinical pregnancy records a success of one in two fertility patients.
On day two of my menstrual cycle, I was admitted to the hospital to transfer the embryo. Throughout the process, our liaison officer and a translator were on hand for any discussions with the Doctor and his team.
When the translator wasn’t around, there was always a Mandarin-speaking nurse nearby who was ready and willing to help out if required.
A few days later I took a pregnancy test and it came back positive! As you can imagine, we were ecstatic! We were asked to ring the pregnancy bell which was a wonderfully symbolic announcement that all the pain and sadness was over and signified that Malaysia had made our dreams come true!
Malaysia has given us hope to our dream of becoming parents. Our story is just one out of many that you can read through #ShareMyXperience. Share your Malaysia Healthcare experience too with the hashtag #MalaysiaHealthcare or #MyHealthIs2020.
You can easily plan your next healthcare travel trip, like we did, by contacting callcentre@mhtc.org.my or visiting their site at malaysiahealthcare.org.
Malaysia provides high quality fertility services in the country with high success rates.
