Many couples experience great anxiety and stress if they have troubles conceiving a child. From a doctor’s perspective, infertility is defined as lack of getting pregnant after trying for 12 months — if the couple is over 35, then 6 months is the usual cutoff. After these time periods, a doctor’s evaluation may be helpful.

The initial workup can be managed easily by many family and ob/gyn doctors here in Beijing. That usually includes physical exams for both partners as well as some standard tests.

If a Beijing couple eventually decides to try in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or intra-uterine insemination (IUI), there is a good private Chinese hospital here in Beijing that specializes in infertility. It’s called Jiaen Hospital, a privately-run hospital managed almost entirely by Dr Jiaen Liu, a Western-trained Chinese doctor with very good english skills. Their specialty is infertility and IVF. (They are not an ob/gyn delivery hospital). I personally vouch for this hospital as my wife and I have been visiting there for over a year.

Laowai, have no fear here! Jiaen Hospital is far lass chaotic than the famous and crowded Beijing #3 Hospital, which I believe is the only other IVF hospital in Beijing. The waiting time for ultrasounds and tests is usually very quick; usually you need to wait an hour or more for Dr Liu. You cannot make a pre-arranged appointment, it’s first come first served (typical of all Chinese hospitals). Please note: most of the other staff does not speak English, so it greatly helps to have a Chinese-speaking friend with you. But the most important person — Dr Liu — speaks English perfectly.

The pricing is reasonable; the total cost for IVF varies but should be under 40,000RMB, which is far less than in America. And most importantly, their facilities are of professional standard.

By the way, Jiaen can also handle the entire infertility evaluation including exams and tests.

Website: http://www.jiaenhospital.com/