By Dr Shradha Chakhaiyar, MBBS, MRCOG (London)
Founder & Chief Consultant, Shradha IVF & Maternity
Reg. No. 36954, Bihar Council of Medical Registration
On 6 October 2026 the National Medical Commission issued its Guidelines on Ethical Advertising and Public Communication (Public Notice No. R-13014/01/2024-Ethics). They apply from the date of publication. They tell every registered doctor and every clinical establishment in India what they may say about themselves in public, including on their own websites.
We went through shradhaivf.com page by page against these Guidelines and started changing it the same week. This post shows what we changed, picture by picture, and why. Where the work is still in progress, I say so.
If you are a couple choosing a fertility clinic, this tells you what you can now expect on any clinic’s website, and what you should be wary of. If you run a clinic yourself, it is a worked example.
The principle in one line
A clinic may tell you facts you can check: who we are, where we are, what we do, what it costs, and who the doctor is, with her registration number. It may not try to persuade you with claims you cannot check: that we are the best, that most patients succeed, that you will get something free, or what other patients say about us.
That is the spirit of clause 8.3 of the Guidelines, which lists what a hospital may publish (name, location, contact, services, facilities, accreditation status, charges) and rules out solicitation, inducement, superiority claims and guarantees.
Changes already live
1. The footer: “Best & most affordable” is gone
Before: the footer line on every page, as archived on 14 July 2026. Phone number blurred.
Now: the same footer. Phone number blurred.
Every page of the site carried the line “Best & most affordable IVF center in Patna, Bihar”. It now reads “IVF and Fertility Care in Patna, Bihar”.
Why: clause 8.1(ix) allows words like “best”, “leading”, “most trusted” or “top” only if they can be objectively verified by a transparent method. No such method exists for “best IVF centre”, for us or anyone else. “Best doctors” also appears by name in the list of prohibited claims at 8.1(iii).
2. The home page heading: “Top-rated” is gone
Before: the home page heading and rating badge, as archived on 14 July 2026.
Now: the same heading, with the rating badge gone.
The heading said “Top-rated IVF and Infertility Treatment Center in Patna, Bihar”. It now says “IVF and Infertility Treatment Center in Patna, Bihar”. Just below it sat a Google rating badge with a star score and a review count. That has also come down.
Why: “Top-rated” is a superiority claim under 8.1(ix). The rating badge is covered in change 4.
3. The offers block is gone
Before: the offers block on the home page, as archived on 14 July 2026. Amounts blurred.
The home page had a block of four offers: maternity cover after successful IVF, a refund if treatment failed, free consultations and scans during treatment, and discounts on IUI and IVF. The whole block has been removed.
Why: clause 8.1(x) prohibits discounts, limited-period offers, coupons, cashbacks and free procedures where they are likely to induce treatment. An offer tied to the outcome of IVF, a refund if it fails or cover if it succeeds, invites a couple to decide on treatment for a reason that is not medical. That is exactly what the clause is aimed at. How our fees work is something we explain to each couple in consultation, in writing, before treatment begins. It does not belong in an advertisement.
4. Ratings and the reviews widget are gone
The Google rating badge and the reviews section, which asked patients for feedback, have been removed from the home page.
Why: under clause 3.2 (Explanation V), a doctor shall not request or share patient testimonials, recommendations, endorsements or reviews for professional promotion. Displaying our star rating on our own site and asking patients to add to it is promotion built on reviews. Patients remain free to review us wherever they choose. We simply do not use those reviews to advertise.
5. The “Pregnancy Success Stories” page is gone
This page told individual patients’ journeys, with photographs, in their words. It has been unpublished, and its address now takes you to our About page.
Why: clause 8.1(v) prohibits personal success stories in advertising, and clause 6.2 says plainly that a patient’s consent does not by itself make a testimonial or patient story permissible. Every story on that page was shared with consent. It still had to come down, because the rule is about the effect on the next reader, not about the permission of the patient in the story.
I want to be clear about one thing. These families were real, and their joy was real. Taking the page down says nothing about them. It reflects the fact that one family’s outcome tells another couple almost nothing about their own chances.
6. Success-rate and family counters are gone
Before: the counters on our Philosophy page, as archived on 19 May 2026. Figures blurred.
Now: the same section, without the counters.
Our Philosophy page displayed four animated counters, including a number of “happy families” and an average IVF success rate. All four have been removed. Two of them, years in practice and round-the-clock patient support, were plain facts, but a block of big animated numbers reads as a scoreboard, so the whole block went.
Why: clause 8.1(iii) prohibits success rates and patient numbers in advertising. There is also a clinical reason we agree with. A single success figure depends entirely on how it is calculated: live birth or positive test, per egg collection or per transfer, which age group. The same group of women can be reported as 13% or 36% depending only on the denominator. A number that cannot answer those questions does not help a couple. Your own chances are discussed at consultation, based on your own investigations.
Changes still being made
Some changes are in the hands of our website team and are not live yet. I would rather tell you that than imply the site is finished.
My qualifications, everywhere. Every page will show my qualifications exactly as recorded on my registration with the Bihar Council of Medical Registration: MBBS, MRCOG (London), Reg. No. 36954. Clause 3.2 (Explanations III and IV) asks that a doctor’s name, qualifications and registration number appear on what a doctor or clinic publishes, and I would want a patient to be able to check them against the Council’s register.
Words that praise rather than inform. Lines such as “Patna’s Best IVF & Fertility Center”, “one of the most trusted”, “leading”, “renowned”, “thousands of families” and “Proven Treatment Outcomes” are being removed from the home, About and doctor pages. They fall under 8.1(iii) and 8.1(ix). Clause 8.3 also bars the promotional portrayal of an individual doctor, which is why the description of me is being rewritten as training and experience, without adjectives. Page addresses that contain the word “best” will change too, with the old addresses redirected so no link breaks.
A goal that promised outcomes. Our About page stated a goal of delivering high IVF success rates. A goal stated in public reads as a claim, so it is being rewritten around how we care for couples rather than what results they will get.
The cost page. Our prices stay exactly where they are. Public declaration of charges is expressly permitted, under the 2002 Regulations and again at clause 8.2 of the new Guidelines, and I believe couples are owed a clear, all-inclusive figure. What changes is the language around the prices. Words like “free”, “discount” and “reduction” come out, and everything included in the package is simply listed as included. The tables comparing our prices with market ranges in Patna also come out. A comparative claim must rest on a method someone else can verify (8.1(ix)), and a range we compiled ourselves cannot be independently checked.
A newspaper advertisement shown as an image. An advertisement reproduced on the home page carried the same maternity cover offer described in change 3. Clause 8.1(xi) prohibits doing indirectly what cannot be done directly, so a picture of an offer is still an offer. It is being removed.
Images. Clause 7.2 prohibits AI-generated images, voices or testimonials of patients or outcomes. We are checking every image on the site, and any picture of a patient or baby that was generated by AI will come down.
Under review. A few items need a decision from the clinic rather than an edit: how we describe camp consultations, how our fee policies are worded for patients, and older testimonial videos on our YouTube channel. They will be dealt with under the same principles.
For other clinic owners: two things that are easy to miss
First, clause 4.4 says that publishing through an agency, influencer or platform does not absolve the doctor or the institution. Our website is managed by an agency. The responsibility for what it says is still mine.
Second, the Guidelines reach further than a homepage. Footers, image banners, widgets, review plug-ins, page addresses and old landing pages are all public communication. Most of what we found sat in places nobody had looked at in months.
What this means for you as a patient
On our website you will find who we are, where we are, what treatments we offer, what they cost and what is included, and who will treat you, with a registration number you can check. You will not find claims that we are the best, success percentages, offers or other patients’ stories.
None of that changes how we treat you. Infertility is a medical condition, not a stigma. IVF is a scientific treatment, not a guarantee. A good consultation tells you honestly where you stand. A website should only help you find your way to it.
Shradha IVF & Maternity, a unit of Niranjan Aarogya Niketan & Research Centre, Behind Devarun Apartment, Bhikhana Pahari, Patna, Bihar 800004. Phone 9334014489. ART Registration No. BR/AC/2024/15254.
This article was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed and approved by Dr Shradha Chakhaiyar. It is general information about advertising rules, not legal advice.
