Some private surgery centers in Ho Chi Minh City have carried out intrauterine insemination (IUI), in which sperm is put into the womb of a woman, even though they are not licensed to do so.

Part 1: Sperm, ovum market alive and well in HCMC Part 2: Unauthorized surgery centers perform insemination

Thao, a mediator in alley A1 of Cong Quynh Street in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1, said that couples can treat infertility at Tu Du Obstetric Hospital, or at private surgery centers.

Treatment in the surgery centers is more expensive, but faster. Sometimes it takes several months to get such a procedure at a hospital, where doctors usually make numerous appointments before conducting an IUI.

Thao introduced customers to the surgery center of Doctor Le Tan Canh, who works at the Tu Du Hospital. “If you are in good health and have enough money, doctors will operate on you immediately,” she said.

“If you want sperm from a person you are acquainted with instead of from the sperm bank in the hospital, take that person to the surgery center and give the doctor a certain amount of money,” she advised.

Another mediator named Nga said that Doctor Canh will perform an IUI, while adding that some couples in the alley have been treated at his center and are already pregnant.

The surgery center of Doctor Canh is located in the second floor of a house on Cong Quynh Street. It comprises of two rooms, with the larger one set up for Canh to work in, while the other is for those who have undergone an IUI to lie down. The center was found full of pregnant women and infertile couples on May 27.

Thuy from District 8, who is in the third month of pregnancy thanks to IUI treatment, said “Doctor Canh is very skillful. It is faster to get the procedure here than in the hospital, where a lot of paperwork is usually required.”

Canh told Tuoi Tre reporters, who were pretending to be a childless couple, that his center could put sperm into a uterus, adding that they should bring health test results next time for him to consider, and he would do the IUI in an ovulation period.

Several women have successfully treated infertility at Canh’s center. After getting a health test, the wife will be injected to stimulate ovulation. When it is time to take sperm, the husband or the sperm seller will give sperm at the center’s restroom or a nearby hotel.

Oanh, a nurse at the center, says couples are not required to present marriage certificates there.

At another surgery center located on Le Van Si Street in District 3, with its director Nguyen Hoang Tuan, deputy head of the Tu Du Hospital’s fertility department A, the price to place sperm into a uterus swings from VND5-7 million (US$238 - 334).

A woman from Go Vap District, who had gone through an IUI half an hour earlier, said “My husband and I went to a nearby hotel to get sperm and the center didn’t check my husband’s health or ask us to present a marriage certificate.”

On May 31, doctors Nguyen Hoang Tuan and Le Tan Canh told Tuoi Tre that they are not licensed to perform an IUI, but they have done so nonetheless.

Tuan explained, “Some women ovulate in the evening when the hospital is closed. Patients cannot wait so I take their sperm from the hospital to my surgery center.”

Canh added that “It is very difficult to wait for an ovulation period. As a result, in some cases I have to break the hospital’s regulations to place sperm into the patients’ wombs to increase the pregnancy ratio and release mental pressure on them.”