Science & Technology

Mexico’s border is gaining ground as destination for Americans seeking pregnancy

Martin Coronado

Ciudad Juarez (Mexico), Sept 14 (EFE).- More and more U.S. couples are traveling to Ciudad Juárez, on the Mexican border, to get pregnant with treatments ranging from psychological therapy to the most advanced in vitro systems at a third of the U.S. price.

According to a specialist from the Texas side of the border,Juarez is attractive not only for the cost of the servic, but also for its quality.

“Approximately 30% of the patients in the city are from the United States, from El Paso and neighboring areas. There are easily hundreds, and we could reach a thousand a year,” Laura Adriana Guerrero, obstetrician and reproductive biologist at Iniciar, a fertility center with more than 12 specialists and state-of-the-art equipment, told EFE.

“Many of the patients are Hispanics, Latinas or Mexicans from Juarez who went to live in the United States and still live there but seek care with Mexican doctors for economic reasons or service,” added Guerrero.

The physician explains that the infertility rate has increased due to an upward trend in the age at which couples seek a child, as well as the lifestyle and habits of Americans and the border population.

“The men who come from the United States are patients who have a certain degree of complexity because they are very exposed to chemicals, and the women have hormonal processes, such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, thyroid; they are the ones I am most commonly treating,” Guerrero explains.

Reproductive modernity on the border Nancy Garcia, administrator of Iniciar Fertility Center, assures that the attraction of Juarez is not only the price but the availability of avant-garde procedures.

“The most complex treatment is in vitro. The patient is stimulated with medication for 10 to 12 days. When the oocytes are ready, they are extracted in an operating room, a 15-minute ambulatory procedure, and about 4 hours in the hospital. They are fertilized that same day, five days go by, and they are frozen. Then the embryo transfer is done to the patient’s uterus,” explains Garcia.

The expert adds that the low-complexity treatment is an artificial insemination that occurs with a low dose of medication, and it is a procedure similar to the natural fertility process done in the same office.

“The cost of the treatment here is 50% less than in the United States. The costs there is around 350,000 pesos or 400,000 pesos (between 17,492 dollars and 23,323 dollars), here less than 150,000 pesos (8,746 dollars),” Garcia added.

Pedro Rodríguez Gómez, a specialist in clinical genetics, maintains that Juarez has all of the worldwide available technologies to carry out these processes.

“We have the same technology: micromanipulators, high-flow chambers, incubators, embryology, technology to perform embryonic genetic biopsies, we have high-end technology,” Rodriguez mentions.

Laura Garcia, an embryologist working in fertility since she studied medicine in the late 90s, points out that the city has at least four clinics with high-end technology and specialists, making Juarez attractive for couples seeking pregnancy.

She also says patients come to Juarez for better pricing and the best service offered by Mexican specialists.

“It is very nice to be part of this process, to help people conceive a child through science. When science can help with this, it is a great satisfaction,” she adds. EFE

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