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.

My meeting with 3 specialists in Delhi

I am back to broadcast the description of our Doctor-Hopping sessions in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. Here it goes...

In Feb'14, we completed two years of Trying To Conceive (TTC). In these two years, my DH and I discussed our infertility with 12 doctors (Allopathic and Ayurvedic) in Bangalore. Guess that wasn't enough to find a solution to our problem. So we shifted our concentration from Within Bangalore to Within India.

We travelled alone to Delhi in Feb'14 and first met with Dr. Sanjay Mittal (Uro Andrologist, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi). His Consultation Fee was Rs. 700 then. It took him just 5 minutes to glance through my DH's reports, give his verdict and support it with logic and science. He appeared to me as a very knowledgeable and experienced Uro Andrologist. Unfortunately, his conclusion was just the opposite of what I wanted to hear from him. He advised only 2 things; Artificial Donor Insemination (ADI) or Adoption :( His confidence made me lose hope, whatever little was left.

Hearing this for the first time was too much to handle alone. These 2 years had taught us that Patience and Perseverance are of great importance in pursuit of a happy life. With this zeal, I took a week to roam around in Delhi and then meet Dr. Kapil Kumar Juneja (Urosurgeon and Andrologist, Moolchand Medcity, Lajpat Nagar III, New Delhi). Since my DH wasn't there to meet him personally and Dr. Juneja was going out of country for few days, he advised to get an Epididymal/Testicular Biopsy at Moolchand after a week or any good hospital in Bangalore. 

Exactly 1 year prior to that date, my DH had got TESE/ incision-suture process done on him; neither of us wanted him to go through the same state of affairs, again. I informed Dr. Juneja about TESE and that no sperms were found in the extraction, so should there be any chance of finding them now. Dr. Juneja politely suggested me to pay a visit to Ayurveda Dept. at Moolchand.

Were we back to square one? 

Well, I met Dr. S V Tripathi (Chief Physician - Ayurveda, Moolchand Medcity, Lajpat Nagar III, New Delhi) the next day, as I reached Ayurveda Dept. after its closing time. I was pretty clear about not repeating the steps, but fortunately, he didn't say so. He saw all the reports and prescriptions (Allopathic and Ayurvedic medicines) and told me very frankly, not to waste more time, money and efforts on trying to treat something which isn't possible anymore. He had good knowledge about science and his field, but we couldn't make use of it in our case.

My Doctor-Hopping session in Delhi wasn't fruitful. Guess that was enough for me to call my DH to Delhi and plan a weekend getaway trip. After all, vacations make you feel good and help in relaxing your nerves, and that was exactly what the need of the hour was.

Bon Voyage!