Our visit to Institute of Reproductive Medicine - Kolkata

After meeting 3 specialists in Delhi and getting disheartened, my DH joined me in Delhi and we took off to Kolkata to visit another specialist and also to take some time off from stress for a few days by exploring Kolkata.

First things first, a month prior to heading to Delhi, I had called Dr. Baidyanath Chakraborty (Institute of Reproductive Medicine, Salt Lake City, Kolkata)  for an appointment. Since he has a busy schedule, one has to wait for a month (plus/minus few days) to get an appointment. Well, it isn't just a simple Doctor's Appointment; they issue you a specific date and time for visiting the institute. You need to carry a print-out of your Appointment Confirmation E-mail sent by the institute, else the guard won't let you in. Reaching the venue 30-60 minutes prior to your appointment is recommended, as their waiting area (in 2013) on ground floor was not very big, with limited number of chairs provided. Since our time of visit was in Apr'13, 9:30AM appointment suited us well to beat the heat outside and also to find a good seat with a fan above; we reached the institute at 9AM and had to wait for almost 2 hours just to get our name called (FYI, we were 5th in queue for that day).

Next step was to check the female partner's height and weight, then a brief wait again, and then head to the first floor to meet a Data Operator to feed all possible details of medical history of both partners into their system. After some more wait, we were finally sent to a hall on ground floor to meet Dr. Chakraborty.

Then a disgusting and embarrassing thing took place. Turn by turn, all females were asked to go to a hallway and then a vaginal test was conducted by a junior lady doctor by inserting her finger(s), not a probe; without even enquiring the diagnosis/prognosis.

Anyway, after the physical examination, me and my DH were sent to finally meet Dr. Chakraborty. After explaining our case (in spite of narrating it to the Data Operator), DH's physical examination was done. His conclusion was to meet another Uro-Andrologist as he didn't have the expertise on male infertility. He recommended meeting Dr. Rupin Shah in Mumbai. 

Since we were already in Kolkata, we made our trip fruitful by visiting Belur Math, Dakhineswar Kalibadi, Kalighat Temple and a few local markets. Unfortunately, because of the strict Airline Rules, we couldn't carry the famous Kolkata Roshogullas back home for our folks, but no one could stop us from carrying different shapes and flavours of Sondesh :)

                                                                    

9 months of Ayurvedic Treament for DH, yet no positive results

On Dr. Sowmya's recommendation, we visited Dr. L. Sucharitha (Pandit Clinic, 5th Main, Chamarajpet, Bangalore) in Dec' 13. Her Consultation Fee was Rs.200. She wrote 4 really expensive medicines for a month's consumption and none of the medicine names were available on Google (neither then, nor now). Those specific medicines were available only in Pandit Clinic; I guess they used code words for all their medicines, not sure if that's ethical. A layman like me couldn't decipher anything from this attached copy of the bill.

Anyway, my DH did consume those Ayurvedic medicines for a month. At month end, the report remained the same. So in Jan'14, Dr. Sucharitha told that she'll tweak the combination of medicines. Here's what she prescribed next :-

With 9 months of Ayurvedic Treatment, DH's sperm production remained nil. We then decided to look for options outside Bangalore.

My next post will tell you about our experience/ conclusion told to us by famous doctors in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.