Last attempt to find a cure for my DH's Azoospermia and Bilateral Varicocele Grade III

After hearing the same advice from Dr. Rupin Shah in Mumbai, we visited a few famous tourist spots, namely Siddhivinayak Temple, Mahalaxmi Temple, Haji Ali, Juhu Chowpati, Colaba Causeway, Gateway of India, Elephanta Caves etc in the rest two and a half days.

Upon our return to Bangalore, DH and I decided to visit one last specialist. We re-visited Dr. A Nagaraj Rao (Professor & Head of Urology Department, St. John Medical College and Hospital, Koramangala, Bangalore) in May'14. He briefly remembered our case history (told to him in Sep'12) and we also updated him about our latest Doctor-Hopping and their conclusions.

His advice was to get a Bilateral Testicular Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) done at Anand Diagnostics, Shivaji Nagar. I do not remember the cost of this test, shall update if I recall. Here's what FNAC procedure is :-

The result of this test would determine whether a Varicocelectomy could be of any help or not. We went ahead with the procedure in May'14 itself. The report was ready after 3 days and here's how it looked :-

 The report came with the studied slide too, for further reference or investigation. 

We went for the review of this report to Dr. Rao. He concluded that although Sertoli cells and Spermatids are seen but occasional; performing another procedure wouldn't change anything or undo the past. At that moment, it seemed to be a dead-lock situation for us; anger, depression, disappointment, fear, frustration, regret were just a few emotions to name which were portraying our state.                                                          

Meeting Dr. Rupin Shah in Lilavati Hospital - Mumbai

Our Delhi and Kolkata trips were informative but not pleasing. Our next destination was Mumbai and target specialist to meet was Dr. Rupin Shah. He was a visiting faculty/consultant in some clinic/hospital in Bangalore in 2014 but he wasn't visiting Bangalore in May or June that year; that forced us to make some travel plans. My DH likes to call such trips as "Medical Tourism", although it is within our country itself.

Anyway, we called and took next feasible appointment with Dr. Rupin Shah (Consultant Andrologist and Microsurgeon, Centre for Male Reproductive and Sexual Medicine, Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre, Bandra West, Mumbai). We flew to Mumbai 16 hours prior to our appointment and also emailed him our reports (we had briefly discussed our case with him over the phone, as they think out-station patients deserve to clarify few things before travelling to Mumbai).

Reaching the hospital an hour in advance is always a good idea. There's a One-time Registration done for Rs.100 and I fail to recall Dr. Shah's consultation fee. Everything is quite organized there; however the only tricky part was dropping one's prescription paper (which later gets attached to your file) in a letter-box type enclosure attached to the doctor's cabin door. That way, your turn may not come as per your sequence in queue, but randomly, by chance/luck/probability. Since there weren't many patients waiting at around 9:30AM on a weekday, we met up with him well within the "waiting time at a clinic" norm.

His advices were :-
1. Attempting a microsurgery (Varicocelectomy and Biopsy) to fix Bilateral Varicocele Grade - III
2. Using Artificial Donor Insemination (ADI)

We were so convinced with his confidence on fixing the Bilateral Varicocele that I almost got my DH admitted in the hospital on the spot, with no family or friends around to bank on for any help. Then we both took individual 10-minute time-off to virtually walk-through the whole thing. Fortunately, we agreed to "not taking hasty decisions" again and immediately went back to meet Dr. Shah to ask the Percentage of Success in such cases.

By his vast experience, he concluded that the TESE could have destroyed any plausible chances of natural sperm generation; his final advice was to take a chance with Varicocelectomy. We had already collected all possible details required for the microsurgery in those 10 minutes. After hearing the dreaded phrase “take a chance", we told Dr. Shah that we need to re-think and take advice of our parents too, and pushed off from there. Dr. Shah had patience; he quietly listened to all our concerns and fears and gave unbiased advice. He was quite affable too.

We faced disappointment in Mumbai as well. Since we had planned a 3-day trip, we continued with our plan after spending nearly 3 hours in Lilavati Hospital. In those two and half days, we explored Mumbai as much as possible and had good fun. It isn't just the disappointments which get hard-wired on your memory, good things too are a part of it; the key is to strike the balance to stay happy and positive. That's why we never miss an opportunity to enjoy life in spite of the tough situation we were facing.

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.