Bad Doctor or Bad Patient ?

It breaks my heart when I see patients who’ve been treated by gynaecologists who never even bothered to do a semen analysis for the husband.  These gynaecologists straight away start investigating the wife with blood tests, ultrasound scans and even a laparoscopy - and have never bothered to do a sperm test.

I always find this amazing , and when I ask my patients “ Why wasn’t the semen analysis done”, they often end up blaming the doctor -  “ But the doctor never told us to”.  Now any doctor who does tests and treatments for the wife without doing a semen analysis for the husband is a bad doctor, but I think it’s equally true that the patient is a bad patient, in that she allowed this to happen.
If a fifty years ago a patient had told me that I blindly did what my doctor told me to do, I would have forgiven them. At that time, all the knowledge was locked up in medical books and journals , and it wasn’t easy for your grandfather to find out what his treatment options were. He was forced to blindly trust his doctor , and he did so.

Today, of course, things are completely different.  You can easily do a Google search, which means you can do your homework for yourself, both before you go to the doctor so you can prepare yourself, and afterwards as well, to make sure he’s providing you the right information.  There are lots of reliable websites , and you can easily become a well informed patient , if you are willing to take the time and trouble.

There really is no excuse today for a patient not to know what their options are . Blindly trusting your doctor is not a very smart option for today's patient.  Please trust your doctor - but first verify that he deserves that trust . Trust is too precious to be given away - it needs to be earned !  Patients need to take responsibility for their decisions , and blaming the doctor for taking the wrong decision really doesn’t help the patient . It harms both the patient as well as the doctor’s reputation.

We all know that you need a man to make a baby , every infertile couple should insist that the husband’s semen analysis be tested first.  This is a simple, easy and cheap test and it’s always the simple, easy and cheap tests that should be done first, before treating the wife. A lot of people will say, “ My husband refuses to come because he thinks it’s not his problem” or the gynaecologist says “ What can I do if the husband didn’t come?”, but this is not an acceptable answer.  Infertility is always a couple’s problem and it has to be the couple which is treated together as a unit. 

Patients who do their homework, will find that not only will their doctor take much better care of them, they will be much happier with the treatment process , no matter what the outcome.

Need help with your IVF treatment ? Please send me your medical details by filling in the form at www.drmalpani.com/free-second-opinion so that I can guide you better !