KUALA LUMPUR - The Health Ministry (MOH) has set up seven clinics specifically to deal with men’s health and well-being to help them deal with fertility problems, said Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Raj Munni Sabu.
She said they are the Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Penang subfertility clinics, while the other four are known as Nur Sejahtera Clinics (KNS), with one of them at Jalan Raja Laut here.
The other three KNS clinics are in Melaka, Dungun and Sarawak.
"The setting up of these clinics is one of the three initiatives of the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) to overcome the problem of male fertility in the country,” she said, adding that the subfertility clinics offer Insemination Procedure (IUI), In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) services.
She said this during the question and answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today in response to a supplementary question from Manndzri Nasib (BN-Tenggara) who wanted to know the initiatives taken by the government to help men with fertility problems.
The government, she said, also held activities through advocacy programmes and promotion, as well as provided tax exemptions for fertility treatment of up to RM6,000, and subsidy for fertility treatment for civil servants.
Raj Munni said the government's objective of helping couples, especially those in the M40 and B40 groups, to deal with the problem of infertility through the LPPKN Subfertility service had been achieved.
She said the response to LPPKN's subfertility service, introduced in 1979, had been good with 40,576 new cases and 262,657 repeat cases recorded as of last April. - BERNAMA