Noted fertility doctor opens Shanghai office

Noted fertility doctor Lu Guangxiu has opened an office in Shanghai.

The 80-year-old founded China’s first sperm bank and created the country's first embryo-transferred test-tube baby.

Lu prides her team at the Reproductive and Genetic Hospital of CITIC-Xiangya in Hunan Province as being one of the best in the world. Over some 40 years, they have “produced” nearly 140,000 test-tube babies.

In a “China’s Push for Better Babies” report published in Nature, it is stated that the hospital recorded 41,000 in vitro fertilization procedures in 2016, roughly a quarter of the annual number in the United States, making it the biggest clinic of its kind in the world.

Lu’s Shanghai office is in the newly opened Productive Medicine Center of Shanghai International Medical Center.

Lu told Shanghai Daily that the city is late to IVF, but she is greatly impressed by the city’s speed to embrace new things and blaze new trails.

“Shanghai has a great academic environment and Shanghai can quickly adopt new technologies,” she said.

Lu’s connection to Shanghai dates back about 20 years when Shanghai’s first and only sperm bank was set up at Renji Hospital. She helped to set its standards.

Lu said she will fly to Shanghai from time to time to see patients. When she’s not in Shanghai, patients can see other doctors from her team who are in the city full-time. 

The Productive Medicine Center officially opened on Saturday, but Lu started to see patients a day earlier. During her stay in Shanghai, she works about five hours to see 20 patients per day.

Figures show that one in eight Chinese couples of child-bearing age are infertile, with most of them aged between 25 and 30.