Saturday, July 21, 2018

How doctors take advantage of IVF patient's ignorance

A patient sent me this email.
-----Original Message-----
From:
To: Aniruddha Malpani
Subject: Re: Two ivf cycles failed
Sir,
Can U pls suggest ivf success supplements?
Next month I m going for third cycle
Can I use mothers Horlicks?
How to get good eggs and embryos?
Any diet chart before, during and after embryo transfer?
Sir, pls kindly suggest me
Lifelong I will be really thankful to you
Now I m taking
1. apcod sachets
2. Metformin
3. Normoz
4. Ultra CoQ10
5. Folic acid
My previous ivf failure reasons are poor quality eggs and embryos, implantation failure and may be unexplained infertility reason 
Actually, the most likely reason for the IVF failure was a bad quality IVF clinic, and because I needed more medical details, so I asked her the following questions, and this was her reply.

1. DO YOU HAVE PHOTOS OF YOUR EMBRYOS ? No sir
2. What were the meds used for
superovulation ?
1. Normoz, 2. Glycomate 3. Folic acid,4. Vitamin d sachets, and some injections for egg growth and trigger injections ( they did not provide any injection names and dose)
In first ivf cycle 17 eggs released , 3 fertilised  second grade quality -  2 transferred - treatment failed
In second ivf cycle 15 eggs released , 2 fertilised  second grade quality -  2 transferred -treatment failed
What was the dose used ? I don’t know sir
How many follicles did you grow ?  17 first cycle and 15 second time
How many eggs were collected ? 17 first time and 15 second time
What was the E2 ( estradiol) level in the blood at the time of the HCG trigger ?   I don’t know sir
How many embryos were transferred ? First time 2 and second time 2
What was the embryo quality ? First time second grade and second time also second grade
What was the endometrial thickness ? Triple line thickness 

It breaks my heart when I see how IVF doctors take advantage of the patient's ignorance and exploit this by providing poor quality care. They keep their patients in the dark, which means patients have no clue as to what is happening.

What causes me even more heartburn is the fact that patients passively put up with this kind of treatment, even though they are spending so much money on their IVF treatment.
If patients don't ask questions, why will doctors bother to provide any answers ?

And if patients are happy to remain clueless about what is happening, is it surprising that doctors treat them so badly ? After all, they seem to be getting away with this with impunity !




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