Only district among Seoul's 25 to receive minister's award

Jin Kyo-hoon, district mayor of Gangseo-gu. [Gangseo-gu]
Jin Kyo-hoon, district mayor of Gangseo-gu. [Gangseo-gu]

Seoul's Gangseo-gu has won the Ministry of Health and Welfare minister's award at a best-practices competition organized by the ministry, for its Gangseo-type Korean Medicine Fertility Treatment Support Project. The district was the only one among Seoul's 25 autonomous districts to receive the minister's award.

Entries were evaluated on a range of criteria, including the innovation of their problem-solving approach, real-world impact, public-private cooperation and potential for broader policy adoption.

The existing Seoul Metropolitan Government Korean medicine fertility support program covered only cases of unexplained infertility and imposed age restrictions on women, leaving older prospective mothers and couples with complex fertility conditions without access to benefits.

In response, Gangseo-gu worked with the Gangseo District Korean Medicine Association to significantly ease eligibility requirements. The district removed the previous age cap of 45, lowering barriers for older women trying to conceive, and expanded eligible diagnoses beyond unexplained infertility to include other causes of infertility.

The district also expanded residents' access and choice. The number of designated Korean medicine clinics in the district more than doubled, from 11 to 28. The program was also revised to allow patients to combine conventional Western fertility procedures with Korean medicine treatment in sequence.

As of 2025, the pregnancy success rate among women who completed the treatment program reached 33.3 percent.

The district went beyond physical treatment to address the emotional well-being of couples struggling with infertility. It ran a "fertility healing forest program" to promote emotional stability, alongside one-on-one mental health counseling for those at high risk of depression.

"This award is the result of the public and private sectors joining forces to listen to the voices of infertile couples who had fallen through the cracks," district mayor Jin Kyo-hoon said. "We will continue to roll out effective policies to overcome the low birth rate so that residents who want children can welcome them with peace of mind."

Meanwhile, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 9,234 babies were born in 2025 through fertility treatment support — a 31.8 percent increase from 7,005 the previous year. That figure accounts for roughly 19.9 percent of all births in Seoul, which totaled 46,401. Roughly one in five babies born in the capital was conceived with the help of fertility treatment support.


cook@heraldcorp.com