How to find the best IVF center - look for a competent and caring IVF doctor

 

Many patients ask me how they can identify a good IVF clinic in their own home-town, since they can't afford to come to us for their IVF treatment , because our clinic is only in Mumbai .

How can they be sure their clinic follows good clinical practices , and conforms to global norms ?

This is a key issue, because the better the clinic you select, the better your chances of getting pregnant.

 I wish I knew every IVF clinic in every town , so I could refer you to the best one, but the reality is I don't , and this is why you need to do your own homework .

The truth is that many unscrupulous IVF doctors take advantage of your ignorance , and provide you with extremely poor quality care , as a result of which your IVF cycle fails.

They then add insult to injury by blaming you for the IVF failure , rather than acknowledging the fact that they lack the experience and expertise to provide top quality medical care.

 Remember that IVF treatment depends on close coordination and synchronisation between the clinician and the IVF lab .

It’s your doctor’s job to create a customised superovulation protocol for you , to help you grow the best quality eggs , and then retrieve these. Then it's up to the embryologist to nurture these eggs and convert them into top quality blastocysts, so the clinician in turn can then transfer them back into your uterus.

Now, if there is a problem  , either with the superovulation protocol, or the timing of the HCG trigger, or the egg collection, or the laboratory , or with the synchronisation between the two, then the IVF success rate is going to drop dramatically. This needs to be a carefully monitored and choreographed dance , and if there is a mis-step, then the chances of a pregnancy occurring go down considerably.

The tragedy is that the poor patient will never know why the cycle failed , because there is so much opacity in most IVF clinics, and doctors a very reluctant to share information with patients.

 This is why you need to be proactive and assertive, and ask whether they have a full time qualified experienced and expert IVF embryologist  . If they don’t, this clearly means they are not well equipped to be able to provide you with the customised care which you need to maximize your chances of getting pregnant.

 Find a clinic which respects you and takes pride in educating their patients; does only Day 5 transfers; and provides embryo photos routinely to all their patients