The World Health Organization estimates that 11,000 cancer incidences will occur in Thailand among men and women under the age of 39 in 2018.
With chemotherapy treatment often leading to infertility, many Thais are unaware of alternative ways to have children using the latest technology in fertility preservation.
Inspire IVF clinic in Bangkok is the only private clinic offering such a service in Thailand. Both women and men can use the service to preserve their ability to reproduce by freezing sperm, eggs or reproductive tissue.
"Not many people know this exists," said Dr Patsama Vichinsartvichai, medical director at Inspire IVF. "But many people can benefit from the treatment."
The clinic opened in October and so far has had just one case for fertility preservation.
"We have all the required technology and experience to meet all the requirements of the Oncofertility Consortium," Dr Patsama said, referring to the international oncofertility association based out of Northwestern University. "We are the only private clinic providing comprehensive fertility preservation."
After chemo or radiotherapy, a woman can get her salvaged reproductive tissue replanted back in her body, or frozen eggs and sperm can be used for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) later. Infertility can also be caused by autoimmune diseases like lupus and other medical conditions.
Research conducted by Mahidol University in 2008 estimated that 15% of Thai women of reproductive age have infertility problems. This could mean 2.5 million couples struggle with fertility, though the true number has never been fully surveyed.
"There's a great pressure for people to have children in this country, especially from families," Dr Patsama said. "Infertility can break up a marriage and even lead to suicide."
Dr Patsama meets patients to explore their options at Inspire IVF clinic. (Photo supplied by Inspire IVF Clinic)
IVF is when eggs and sperm are brought together and fertilised in a lab, then implanted in a woman's womb. The process is expensive (100,000-200,000 baht per cycle) and not covered by insurance, so it remains inaccessible to many Thais. It often takes a few cycles for a woman to get pregnant through IVF.
"The grief of infertility can be as intense as losing a loved one," said Sue Barton, a laboratory consultant at Inspire IVF. "We recommend our patients go through counselling, which is standard in Western IVF clinics."
Many wealthy Chinese are flocking to Thailand to access the service after the Chinese government amended the one-child policy to allow for a second child. IVF is fairly new in China, and the country suffers a shortage of qualified doctors offering the treatment.
Even Thailand is struggling to meet demand for IVF treatment, as foreign embryologists are not allowed to practise in the country. There are roughly 180 embryologists in Thailand certified by the Association of Thai Embryologists.
"There's a big shortage of skilled embryologists in Thailand, and many of them don't have enough hours of training to have high success rates," Ms Barton said. "Not every certified embryologist can do ICSI, which makes up less than 10% of IVF treatments in Thailand."
ICSI, or intracytoplasmic sperm injection, is a method of IVF in which a single sperm is injected into a mature egg. The procedure is used in extreme cases of male infertility.
In 2016, 12,247 IVF cycles were reported, of which 750 were conventional IVF and 11,497 were ICSI.
