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Rohit Gutgutia: IVF Boom in India Raises Questions on Commercialization and Patient Care

Rohit Gutgutia/LinkedIn

Jun 8, 2026, 17:46

Rohit Gutgutia: IVF Boom in India Raises Questions on Commercialization and Patient Care

Rohit Gutgutia, Medical Director at Nova IVF Fertility, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Commodification of IVF practice:

I write this on request of a few of my non medical friends who are intrigued by the billboards and banners of IVF clinics springing up at every nook and corner of all our cities.

Lets first get the facts straight…..

India is a young country. Total addressable market of couples seeking parenthood is huge.
There is a premium that our society places on parenthood. This leads to immense pressure on the couples to seek IVF even when they find it beyond affordability, thereby fueling the demand.
Repeatability is the norm. IVF live birth rates are less than 50%. So most couples need to attempt more than once.
The famed Indian diaspora considers travelling back to India for IVF a viable option. Lesser costs, family vacation and family pampering and hopefully some good news in the bargain.

So obviously there is a boom going on in the IVF sector. And from boom to commercialization and then from commercialization to commodification is but a matter of time. Allow me to explain..

2000’s: IVF was recognized as a high growth healthcare service vehicle prompting pioneer Doctors to set up large format dedicated clinics to cater to the demand. They helped shape the industry as we see today. Those were the days when the demand was just about picking up but as supply was even more limited these doctors never had to worry about acquiring clients. In fact, most had a robust waiting list.
Those days trained manpower was scarce as IVF practice was still a guarded secret. May be some smart people saw opportunity in this scarcity.

2010’s :That’s how corporatization of IVF crept in. They democratized the practice. Encouraged entry of non-entities like yours truly into the hallowed portals of IVF practice. Set up high quality labs which brought in consistent outcomes. These were the halcyon days of corporatization. And this truly liberated IVF practice from the clutches of the entitled few.

But this initial success was the bedrock for the ensuing commodification of IVF services.

Here’s how:

2015’s: Success breeds competition and fuels expectation. Corporates got greedy and started putting up clinics in every nooks and corner. Others jumped in the fray. With economy keeping pace, the demand and ability to do IVF kept on increasing but the supply was soon outstripping demand.

2020’s: To keep up pretense’s of profitability and yet stick to ethics was becoming difficult. And so started the commodification drive. Free consults, free tests, on-spot discounts, invitation pricing and what not. Slowly but surely focus shifted from in clinic conversation between the physician and the patient to the financial counseling room between the Business Manager and the client couple.

Today’s: With brightly lit banners advertising IVF clinics at every nook and corner, everyone claiming success in excess of 80 percent and above, and clinicians driven to act as salespersons, commodification of IVF is now complete…

Comments!”

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