Decided to go with ART at Manipal Hospital

After running from pillar to post, visiting so many doctors within a month's time, we zeroed in on Manipal Hospital Bangalore (MHB) with high hopes. Actually, we heard about MHB on radio while driving on one of the "doctor hopping" days. They had a dedicated ART/ IVF Dept and talked about good success rates; plus they had Dr. Bina Vasan & Dr. Vasan S.S., Urologist-Andrologist as their Team Lead.

We first met with the Uro-Andrologist in Nov' 12 to discuss my DH's Severe Oligospermia and Bilateral Varicocele Grade III and see if his suggestion was any different. He gave us enough time to understand all the reports and our fears, then prescribed two medicines for one month time period, namely Paternia and Wysolone to boost the sperm production. He asked us to do a Semen Analysis (SA) test before starting the medicines and come back with a fresh SA test after taking a month's dose. He also asked us to discuss the way forward with his wife, Dr. Bina Vasan, ART Specialist.

We met Dr. Bina Vasan, asked about the IVF procedures, their costs, etc. We were given in-depth information about all of it by her Assistant, Dr. Manju Nair. As a norm, MHB asks all their new ART patients to do expensive tests of HIV, HCV, HBsAg, VDRL and ELISA for both the partners before going ahead with any treatment. In the next consultation, they wrote down few more tests like Inhibin B and CASA for the male partner and a procedure called Hysteroscopy for the female partner. 

After meeting the doctor couple, our dimming hopes got new flight. We felt that we are in safe hands, and this might be the positivity that we were looking for. Their enthusiasm and involvement gave us confidence.

DH reports of SA in Nov'12, were just the same as conducted in Sep and Oct' 12 in the previous few "doctor hopping" visits (all of them were reputed clinics, so scope of error wasn't much) although done in different lab. 

They planned my hysteroscopy procedure in Dec' 12. Later, many doctors confirmed that conducting a hysteroscopy even before starting with an ART treatment isn't the best thing to do; makes more sense to be done after a few failed IUI/IVF attempts.

More about hysteroscopy and our journey in my next post.

Making a decision: ART or Ayurveda?

It was a difficult decision to make. We wanted to explore and exhaust all possible options before choosing "What's next?". So we decided to consult a few ART specialists discussing our case and see if a mid-way could be found.

We started with Dr. Kamini Rao (Dr. Kamini Rao Hospital, Jayanagar 5th Block, Bangalore - now Permanently Closed) in Oct' 12. She straightaway suggested IVF, not even considering IUI. It didn't give us a good feeling so we chose to walk away with no acknowledgement to her advice (no, it wasn't rude at all).

Google Search provided us with a list of Doctors and Clinics in Bangalore who conduct IVF/ ART. Then we met Dr. Uma Maheswari (Sure Fertility, J.P.Nagar 5th Phase, Bangalore) in Nov' 12. Since we had all possible tests reports for me and my DH, she concluded to either go with a Varicocectomy or ART. Probably, not what we wanted to hear, AGAIN. As their success rate in 2012 wasn't that great, we decided to keep it as last priority and discover more clinics/ specialists.

Few days later, we read about Dr. Madhuri Patil (Dr. Patil's Fertility and Endoscopy Clinic, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore). So we headed to her clinic. She did a default Pelvis Scan (all patients were made to pay even before being informed about it) not considering which day of your menstrual cycle you visited. I got highly pissed off with her for pinching my areolas without notice. She didn't even give it a mention why she did that. She concluded to do an ICSI because as per her, I had PCOS which the previous two scans conducted at two different clinics were not seen. I definitely didn't want to get pinched again, plus the PCOS was not very convincing so we never went back to her.

After all these experiences, we decided to visit an ayurveda centre. This lead us to Dr. V R Padmanabha Rao (Amruth Ayurvedic Centre, Basavangudi, Bangalore). His treatment stated a 23-day Panchakarma process. I am attaching details for your reference.

The process seemed very cumbersome, as it required my DH to visit the said ayurvedic centre daily for an hour in the morning, coming back home, taking bath and then head to work, and a lot of driving during peak office hours. This treatment that time costed INR 35000.00. Although this cleansing process looked promising, the dynamics of it didn't work out well for us, hence we gave it a pass.

"What's next?"

Diagnosed with Severe Oligospermia and Bilateral Varicocele Grade III

Dr. Joshitha Naik suggested that we discuss our case with Dr. Mahendra Jain (Urologist, a consultant in Lady Hospital, Jayanagar, Bangalore). Unfortunately, visiting him was a complete waste of time, effort and money. We, being the only patient for him to consult on a Saturday afternoon, were made to wait for 1.5 hours, that too after making several enquires. Upon his arrival, he did some physical examination and prescribed few medicines to cure Severe Oligospermia. He didn’t suggest any tests or scans. We googled about the drugs and they were nothing but energy pills and some vitamin supplements. We discarded his diagnosis and discussed it with Dr. Naik. She then gave reference of Dr. Ravish I R (Urologist, a consultant in Lucid Diagnostics, Jayanagar, Bangalore), also attached with Vikram Hospital, Millers Road, Bangalore. 

We visited Dr. Ravish in Sep’ 12 itself. He had a fair idea of what it might be leading to. He asked my DH to get a Doppler Scrotal and Ultrasound Transrectal done. The report concluded that the Severe Oligospermia could be a result of Bilateral Varicocele Grade III (the worst case). He suggested that a Varicocelectomy “might” fix the problem but post the procedure, my DH would need at least 1 month to recover from the incisions and sutures, and the testis would require another 3 months to produce fresh sperms normally. For your information, Lucid Diagnostics conduct all sorts of tests and scans; their consultant doctors are very professional and they value your time.

We weren't sure if going for this procedure was the first thing to do, so we decided to consult another specialist. This time we googled and discovered that St. John’s Hospital has really good and talented doctors in their panel. St John's might not be the cleanest hospital in town but it is worth going there for their talented faculty. We met up with Dr. A Nagaraj Rao (Professor & Head of Urology Department, St. John Medical College and Hospital, Koramangala, Bangalore). He turned out to be a very knowledgeable and experienced professional. He took a lot of time to go through each and every report we were carrying with us, confirmed that the diagnosis of Dr. Ravish I R was in fact correct, and result of conducting Varicocelectomy might not be successful. We did few tests, namely FSH, LH and Free Testosterone. Reports highlighted the excessive work done by the brain, signalling the testis to produce sperms. He explained the science of testis and how varicoceles impede the production of sperms. Apart from the procedure, he gave us two more options, Artifical / Assisted Reproductive Technique (ART) and Ayurveda.

Current day... Struggle is still on

After yet another failed IVF cycle (ICSI process), I am on a month long break to let my hormones settle down and get geared up for the next attempt. This statement might create an impression of me in your mind as a very strong woman; I am. But feelings change every second, each day. My state of mind keeps fluctuating whenever I recall all the struggles of our "trying to conceive a new life" as a couple.

In this blog, I wish to unfold the sequence of events and share the experience that my husband and I have been through since Dec' 2011. Trust me, it isn't just a struggle to make a baby of your own, but a lot more to deal with.

I know, there are many blogs/ posts/ discussions on infertility (mostly USA, Germany and UK based couples) which has all the latest updates of their cycles and quick references from their past, but that doesn't help much. Even I have read such posts a hundred times myself, but I am going to make this blog different from the others by revealing maximum details (names of places/ clinics/ doctors, tests, costs, etc) for the benefit of my countrymen and foreigners too (many foreigners visit my country to find solution to their infertility problems). My aim is to help other struggling "trying to conceive" couples understand the nitty-gritty of infertility and find their bundle of joy.

My next post will talk about my journey from the very beginning. I plan to do it fast, keeping in mind that my next cycle is just a month away and I have to capture details of past 50 months.

P.S.:  I am an Indian and all my references will be from India.