Monday, May 13, 2013

Success story for a man with globozoospermia

As a referral IVF clinic , we treat many patients who have failed IVF and ICSI cycles in other clinics. Here's a success story from such a couple.

Globozoospermia is a very rare condition , and most IVF clinics in the world will not be able to even properly diagnose this condition, leave alone manage such complex cases. While I am very proud of the fact that we helped our patient to achieve a pregnancy, I am even more proud of the fact that he has become an expert patient, who is very well-informed about his problem ! He now knows more about globozoospermia than most IVF specialists !


Here's his first person account.

We got married in August 2009, and  after marriage we were very happy and enjoying our new phase of life. After one year we thought of next stage of life - parenthood , which is very precious in every couple’s life. But our planning didn’t work. Then we approached the doctor. At that time we were in Kuwait we went to a famous clinic of Kuwait. The doctor suggested for complete diagnosis. The diagnosis resulted in identifying the reason for infertility is due to quality of sperm .However doctor said we can go for IUI treatment , and because of our lack of knowledge about infertility treatment , we underwent 2 cycles of IUI treatment in first half of 2011 with no success.

In June 2011, we shifted to UAE and the first thing we hunted for was the best infertility clinic in UAE .We took all our earlier reports and explained everything about our problem and the treatments that we had undergone previously. Then doctor suggested for a repeat of semen test and the results shocked me . All my previous reports showed semen counts of 30 million and suddenly semen results showed  just 3 million with less than 5% motility with 98% abnormal morphology. He suggested us to go for an ICSI cycle. We went for our first cycle of ICSI in UAE in November 2011. 2 eggs were fertilized .However the doctor mentioned the quality of embryos  was not good and the growth was very slow , possibly because of slow sperms. We waited for 14 days and did the HCG test , but the result was negative. Then we were frustrated and we decided to take a break . I decided to try to improve quality of sperm and went through a nine months  course of homeopathic treatment.

After ten months of treatment we went for a sperm analysis at SRL diagnostics Dubai. The lab analysis showed an improvement in sperm count and motility but reported a new term - 80% Globozoospermia (which means the acrosome or cap on the head of my sperm was missing).

Then one day I searched for the best clinic in India who can give us new hope. We found out about Dr Malpani. We mailed him all the details and the treatments that we have undergone in the last two years. He responded almost immediately to my mail, and I was very happy. Then in my next mail I asked him for an appointment.

We planned for our first cycle of ICSI @ Malpani clinic in October 2012. In our first meeting with Doctor , he asked us what our Plan B was ( if treatment is not successful ).We were surprised and bit confused but later understood the importance of having plan B when he explained this to us. He educated us about our problem. Our ICSI cycle was not successful and none of the eggs got fertilized. Dr called us to the clinic and embryologist showed us the eggs and the video of complete process of ICSI. I was told this is not normal and that globozoospermia was a very rare diagnosis. It was suggested I repeat the semen test with special stains for checking the presence of acrosomes on the sperm @ Dr.Avinash Phalkde, SRL Diagnostics , Shivaji Park. 

I was diagnosed with 98% Globozoospermia. Dr said  I was the first patient he had come across with this diagnosis. He emailed me a few research articles on Globozoospermia and the articles mentioned that lack of acrosome can cause complete fertilization failure after ICSI . There were very few success stories in the world for treatment of globozoospermia. Then we decided to go for plan B (donor sperm) and met Dr in Feb 2013. At this time, Dr explained the option of doing ICSI with about Assisted Oocyte activation using a calcium ionophore . He told us that they would be doing it for the first time in their clinic . We took few days time to make up our mind and then decided to go with the treatment.

We had our 2nd ICSI cycle @ Malpani clinic in March 2013 but this time with AOA with Calcium Ionophore. This time 2 of 8 eggs got fertilized and the quality of embryos was very good. And after 14 days of waiting time it was a great feeling, because  the pregnancy test was positive. We had our first scan  after 7 weeks of pregnancy and we have a bonus because  it is a twin Pregnancy.

All kudos and all credits to Dr Malpani for suggesting AOA with Calcium Ionophore. We thank Dr Malpani from the bottom of our heart.
             

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:28 PM

    Congrats. Tell me plz what was your cost of icsi procedure of dr malpani. It was very expensive is intd...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:53 PM

    Hearty congratulations to the couple and to Dr. Malpani's team!

    ReplyDelete