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.