A True Story
The photograph is of Jayalakshmi, my mother’s older sister. She married in the 1940s, to a doctor, and never had a child of her own. Fertility care then was nothing like it is today: investigations were rare, treatment was largely inadequate, and in India, childlessness was treated as a disgrace rather than a medical condition. She carried that weight for the rest of her life, and it brought on serious depression. More than once, she asked my mother, her younger sister and then a medical student, whether she could adopt my mother’s first child. That child was me. My aunt never lived to meet me. She died of blood cancer at 34.
I started Jananam because of her. It exists for the one thing she wanted and never had. The unhurried consultations we run here, the prices we quote upfront, and the conversation we now have with every patient before their first cycle about when we’ll recommend stopping, all of it is what I wish someone could have given her.
“Childlessness has wrecked many a deserving life. Dear God, please grant us the strength to help those in need with compassion, competence and moral principles.”
-Dr. Vani Sundarapandian
Medical Director, Jananam
