Hwaseong City Steps Up Support for Women with Infertility

Hwaseong City announced on the 24th that it will begin a Korean medicine infertility treatment project, including Korean medicine prescriptions, over three months until this July in cooperation with the Hwaseong City Korean Medicine Doctors' Association (chaired by Jeong Bong-deok) to increase the fertility potential of women with infertility.

This is the first such project pursued by Hwaseong City in Gyeonggi Province. In 2010, the city was designated as a Korean Medicine Health Promotion Hub Public Health Center by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and has been running various Korean medicine health-related programs, including a Korean medicine stroke prevention class, a Korean medicine youth smoking cessation class, and a Korean medicine home-visit treatment project.

Park Heon-young, director of the Hwaseong City Public Health Center, conveyed the purpose of the project, saying, “As the infertile population increases due to dietary imbalance, drug abuse, and advanced maternal age, this is intended to ease the financial burden on infertile couples through a Korean medicine support project as a Korean Medicine Health Promotion Hub Public Health Center, and to actively participate in the government's low birthrate policy.”

To this end, in March the city recruited applications from those who had not undergone artificial insemination and those who wished to receive their first procedure, among applicants for the ‘Hwaseong City Infertile Couples Support Project.’ A total of 38 people applied, and 20 were finally selected through an evaluation committee.

The 20 selected individuals will receive Korean medicine treatment services—such as herbal medicine prescriptions to increase the possibility of natural pregnancy and acupuncture and moxibustion procedures—through Korean medicine treatment at designated Korean medicine clinics within Hwaseong City for three months until this July. The treatment costs are entirely free, with Hwaseong City and the Hwaseong City Korean Medicine Doctors' Association each bearing 50%.

Meanwhile, the city said that through its 2010 infertile couples support project, it supported 621 artificial insemination procedures and 380 in vitro procedures among 1,063 applicants, of whom 204 succeeded in becoming pregnant.