Tuesday, September 26, 2017

The ovarian rejuvenation scam using PRP


I had this email conversation with a patient recently
Greetings. Writing to you from Mumbai. I am 40 years old with an extremely low AMH  and regular periods. Wanted to find out if you are doing ovarian rejuvenation using PRP ( platelet rich plasma) ? If yes, how do I go about getting in touch with your team ? I know doctors are doing it in Gujarat, Hyderabad and Chennai but not sure if anyone is doing this in Mumbai. Kindly revert at the earliest. 
I wrote back to her :
This is now the latest scam in IVF and reproductive medicine. Doctors offer to inject autologous "stem cells"  ( derived from the patient's own blood) into the ovary, with the promise that this will "rejuvenate" old ovaries and get them to start producing young eggs again.
Doctors are promising older women that they have now found the "elixir of life", and will be able to help them to have a baby, even though their ovaries are no longer producing any eggs.
The truth is that this just does not work, and these unscrupulous and unethical doctors are taking their patients for ride. They are using them as guinea pigs - and even worse, charging them for the privilege of serving as experimental subjects !
She replied :

Dear Dr Aniruddha,


Thank you so much for replying. My husband is also not a fan of this experimental treatment primarily happening in Greece, California, New York and a few places here and there. He doesn't believe in it. But Dr I am a part of a patient community and online forum, and lots of ladies who have  done PRP claim that their hormones have balanced out , and their AMH has also increased. Maybe it's a temporary increase , but I am really tempted to try it. I have even heard about PRP done in the endometrium, which helps strengthen the lining. My husband feels that this is just a fad and I should not go for it and stick to tried and tested fertility treatments but I am still confused with all this information coming by way. 

This was my reply :

Don't trust everything you read on online bulletin boards ! Many of these so-called patients are actually agents of the IVF clinic , who are paid to post positive reviews for them. The reviews are false and designed to deliberately mislead.
Please use your common sense ! If this really worked, then wouldn't all IVF clinics offer the treatment to their patients ?

The problem is that it's easy to take emotionally vulnerable , desperate patients for a ride - after all, hope lives eternal in the human breast !

Patients will continue getting cheated by crooked doctors out to make a quick buck at their expense, because good doctors don't speak up against these unethical and unproven practices ,and allow their patients to be duped !

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