Department Introduction
About Us
In 1987, in order to further enhance the techniques for treatment of infertility in our hospital, the former director Cai Hongde went to Japan for further studies, and the introduced foreign advanced concepts and techniques for treatment of infertility and established the IVF laboratory in the following year.
In 1992, Dr. Lai Chaohong returned from Australia and introduced the ultra-rapid embryo freezing technology to enable more embryos to be preserved and transferred to the womb to improve the chances of pregnancy. In the same year, we introduced the most advanced embryo transfer catheter from the United States, so that the center could achieve the highest pregnancy rate as 44% in Taiwan, which was definitely inferior to that in Australia and the United States.
In 1994, the hospital dispatched technicians and physicians to study in Belgium, who then introduced the latest Microscopic Testicular Sperm Extraction technology for male infertility patients to raise their abilities in impregnating women. It was the first time that the special treatment technique was introduced to treat infertility in Central Taiwan.
In 1999, Dr. Chen Zezhao returned to Taiwan after finishing his studies in Canada, and he began to conduct research on endometrial and embryo implantation (especially the relationship between cadherin and embryo implantation), which greatly enhanced the success rate of embryo implantation.
In September of 2006, the former director Yang Dongchuan took over the work at the IVF room. His stringent attitudes also increased the success rate of IVF.
On 2007/3/21, the Artificial Reproductive Law was enacted, and on September 21th of the same year, the Department of Health conducted field checks and formally recognized the hospital as one of the excellent “Artificial Reproductive Institutions.”
In September of 2009, the research laboratory was expanded into a Reproductive Medicine Center, and Dr. Zhang Hongji who promoted the natural cycle method to alleviate the suffering of patients was invited to be the director. Then, in 2011, Dr. Zhang Fan as the director of Maternity and Gynecology Department of Chiayi Christian Hospital took over as the director of the reproductive medicine center, who then used his practical experience gained from the Reproductive Medicine Center of Nottingham University in the United Kingdom to make our hospital a stronghold for reproductive medicine in Taiwan.
In August of 2014, Dr. Ho Yan-ping, an assistant professor at the Reproductive Medicine Center of Taichung Veterans General Hospital, was appointed as a director. Based on his past experience at Stanford University and the spirit of personalized chemotherapy, patients are able to choose the most appropriate treatment based on individual physiques and achieve the best treatment effect. In addition, the germ cell freezing service was also expanded to enhance effectiveness of freezing medicine.
The number of oocytes retrieved per month by the Reproductive Medicine Center has grown to about 30 per month. In the past 20 years, we have also performed thousands of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and nearly 10,000 artificial inseminations. The center has achieved excellent results and become comparable to the world-class reproductive medicine institutions.