How to find the best IVF doctor - a guide for IVF patients

 

One of the commonest questions patients ask me is - Doctor , we can't come to Mumbai for our IVF treatment , so can you suggest which doctor we can go to in our home town ?

I wish I could do that , but the problem is I don't know all the doctors all over the world . I can't be sure how good or bad an individual doctor is , and it’s very hard to vouch for someone else's professional competence and character.

I tell patients to use the following method to find the right doctor. This is basically a two-pronged approach , based on both medical skills and the chemistry between the doctor and you.

The first question is simple – ask, do you do blastocyst transfers for all your patients, and do you provide embryo photos routinely to all your patients. You can get this information either by sending an email to the clinic , or by picking up the phone and talking to the receptionist.

This is a basic question every IVF clinic should be able to answer . If they try to avoid answering this, that in itself is a Red flag , which means they really don't know what they're doing .

If the answer to both these question is yes, your next step is to take an appointment and go see the doctor . This is when you find out if the doctor inspires trust . Is he respectful , and is he willing to take the time to answer all your questions . Or is he more interested in seeing as many patients as possible , in order to maximize his revenue ?

The chemistry between the doctor and you needs to be right . The doctor needs to be willing to work to earn your trust , and you need to make sure that he is worthy of giving it to him . This is a two-way street .

You need to invest time and energy to find the right doctor , because this is the single decision which can make the biggest difference as to whether or not you will succeed in your quest for having a baby through IVF .