GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — It took May Ahel, 30, three years to save up $2,500 to have an in vitro fertilization (IVF). Ahel was not able to conceive for a whole year following her marriage in 2012.
She told Al-Monitor that at first, she underwent ovarian stimulation four months into her marriage because she suffered weakness in ovulating, known as anovulation. After she underwent the full five-month treatment in one of Gaza’s hospitals, which cost her around $1,000, Ahel was shocked to find out that her husband had a fertility problem as well. She had to wait around a year, during which she and her husband spent more than $500 on treatment for his condition of sperm malformation. The cost was a burden, especially since Ahel does not work and her husband, a policeman, has not been receiving his salary for two years as a result of the political conflicts between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
