How to identify a bad IVF clinic

Many patients can’t travel to Mumbai to take treatment in our clinic, which is why a common question they ask me is – how do we identify a good IVF clinic? After all, the better the IVF clinic you choose , the better your chances are of getting pregnant !

The trouble is all IVF doctors are very friendly when you visit them for the first time. They are happy to promise you a baby , and they all claim to have the highest success rates when you go for a consultation. You only learn how incompetent they are after your cycle has failed, because they refuse to provide you with any information.

Here’s a solution to protect yourself from being taken for a ride. Use the following simple tool to identify a bad clinic – and by rejecting all the bad clinics, you will finally identify a good clinic !

Part of the problem is that patients can be quite naïve and immature , and they believe that all IVF clinics are equally good . The other problem is that patients don't feel they are qualified enough to be able to differentiate between a good IVF clinic and a bad IVF clinic . After all, they are just patients , whereas the doctor is the medical expert . How can they challenge his authority ?

The good news is that you only need the clinic to answer 2 simple questions to identify a bad clinic. You can get these answers by phone or by email, so you don’t even need to waste time and money on doing a consultation ! Please make sure you get the answers before you sign up, because after you have paid your money , you may get all kinds of answers that may not be honest.

The first question is does the clinic routinely give photos of embryos to all their patients ?

This is important because the thing an IVF clinic can do is make embryos. After we transfer them, whether they will implant and become a baby is not something which is in our control because implantation is a biological process that is notoriously inefficient and unpredictable.

Every good clinic takes pride in producing good quality embryos, and they are happy to provide photos to their patients so they can see for themselves that the clinic has provided high quality medical care. This means that if the clinic refuses to provide embryo photos , you need to worry about why they are hiding such important and valuable information from their patients ! The most probable reason is that the quality of care they provide is poor , which is why the embryos they create are of poor quality , and they don't want to share this bitter truth with their patients , because they are worried that they will leave them and find a better clinic.

The second simple question you need an answer to is: Do you do blastocyst transfers only for all your patients ? Now, I understand this is a technical term, and IVF patients are often not sure what the difference between an embryo and a blastocyst is. This ignorance can be expensive, because you do need to become an expert on your problem before starting an expensive IVF treatment cycle on which so much of your happiness depends . An embryo that is grown to Day 5 in the lab is called a blastocyst, and this has a much better chance of implanting , which is why all good clinics all over the world will only do blastocyst transfers for all their patients . This is because a Day 3 embryo does not belong in the uterus; it belongs in the fallopian tube, so it makes no sense to put it back in the uterus so prematurely. The stage at which an embryo reaches the uterus is only on day 5 , by which time it has formed a blastocyst and is ready to implant.

If you find a clinic that answers "yes" to both these questions, then you can be sure the clinic is technically competent, and you can be comfortable taking treatment there.

On the other hand, if the clinic does not answer yes to either of these two questions ( and you can ask the nurse or the receptionist for the answers! ), you should stay far away , because this is clearly a bad clinic that is going to hide information from you , and this is not in your best interests ! 

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