I don't know where to start this article from, because every time I think about this issue I get very angry at the unfair treatment that this doctor, rather scientist received. Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay has been the father of IVF in India, delivering a "test tube" baby 67 days after Louise Brown was born in Manchester, UK.
Somewhere around the late 90s, I first came to know of 'Durga', this girl conceived through IVF and a result of a successful experiment by Dr. Mukhopadhyay. I don't remember why this news was reported in the 90s, or in what context, but I remember my family discussing this at the breakfast table. They were upset that the recognition came after so many years and they were also angry at the Government and also at the family for not having the guts to come speak the truth. Especially at it caused the death of the scientist.
Fast forward many more years, I got in the IVF world after being diagnosed with PCOS and my husband having some male factor infertility. The solution to both those problems would be IVF. My RE explained to us the process and I started reading up about it. Then one day I just looked up Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay, wondering what exactly did he do for his IVF experiment. To my surprise, I found that his technique was far more advanced than those of the British team. Louise Brown was conceived through what is now called "natural IVF", where the maturity of one ovum was monitored, then it was retrieved through a laparoscopic surgery and then fertilized. However, for Dr. Mukhopadhyay and his team, they involved cryopreservation. That is the basis of freezing the embryos. The remarkable part is, unlike the elaborate labs of the West, Dr. Mukhopadhyay used the freezer of his own refrigerator to freeze the embryo. Also, he used hormone injections to stimulate the ovaries so that it would produce more eggs. In normal cases, a woman's ovary produces one, or in rare cases two mature eggs per cycle. But with the hormone injections, multiple eggs are produced, which can be fertilized and frozen for future use.
There are many more advantages of frozen embryo transfer instead of fresh ones. Firstly, fresh embryo transfer happens around day 3 after the egg retrieval surgery. That means the woman is already tired and still recovering from the surgery. Her internal organs are tender. Poking it more to transfer the embryo at that time is pretty uncomfortable for her.
Also, if the embryos are fresh, there is no time to get them genetically tested. Frozen embryos are genetically screened, which means the chance of a viable pregnancy is increased. Because then you know that the embryos which would be able to make it are the ones getting transferred. For frozen embryos, they are aged 5 days at the time of transfer. Which is a close simulation of the natural process where embryos take around 5 days to swim down from the Fallopian Tubes into the uterus. Moreover, frozen embryos can be kept in the tanks for 25 years. So when you are ready, you can get an embryo out, thaw it, and get it transferred.
Anyway, back to the story. Dr. Mukhopadhyay pioneered this in 1978 but because of the crab mentality and a disgusting government of our state, instead of congratulating him on this tremendous success and proudly letting the world know his, he was mocked, ridiculed, and punished by demoting him and sending him off to a hospital the villages, away from his lab at home. Eventually, he was driven into depression, suffered a heart attack, and finally took his own life.
The family for whom he did all this never really took a strong stand on his behalf. The girl, now a 40 yr old woman, wrote in an article that she wondered how much her parents paid the doctor. I never found her family to speak out. That bugs me because it did end up taking Dr. Mukhopadhyay's life. If they took a stronger stand, came out, maybe that would have added some proof that she indeed was born in vitro. But I also get it, even today people don't talk about infertility. They feel that this is a failure on their parts, especially women. Women feel like they are failing to do what is expected of them. The society has effectively brainwashed women to believe that their goal in life is to be baby incubators. Infertility in that case definitely means a failure. Though to me, it is nothing other than, well, wearing glasses. My eyesight is poor. My eyes don't do their work at they should. Do I feel embarrassed about it? Do I feel like a failure that my retina is weak? No! I wear glasses normally. Assisted vision, right? Same as Assisted Reproductive Treatment. Why are they any different?
I cannot do anything to bring Dr. Mukhopadhyay back. But what I can do is remember his work and keep his legacy alive. I will be telling my "science baby" how she has been born and encourage her to pursue a career in science where she would also be able to create such miracles.
Some storks do indeed look like Reproductive Endocrinologists!
Source for Dr. Mukhopadhyay's story. Please do read this article. https://www.dur.ac.uk/asian.infertilities/news/?itemno=8158
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