After the second cycle was a decision making time for us. Do we try another IVF/ICSI/ The huge dose of medications was a worry. How many more times do we go through this? What are the long term effects? Is there a problem with us? Other ideas such as surrogate and donor eggs and all those floated around. We thought about all of these. We have to admit that lot of these thoughts went through our heads.
Finally, we made a decision to do one last IVF/ICSI and then abandon the effort if it does not work. Dr. Jyothi had recommended at the time of our second cycle beginning that ideally we should not do a third cycle in her opinion. She was concerned about the high doses required to stimulate in our case. However, Dr. Bina did not seem worried and there was nothing online indicating otherwise either. Our back up plan was to consider adoption. In our case, we ended up regretting this decision even though our next UVF resulted in a pregnancy. But that is for later.
Right now, I wanted to share some comments about IVF clinics in general and IVF at Manipal specifically.
At Manipal hospital, this clinic is on the 9th floor (as of our visits and even now). The space available is in no way sufficient to handle the volume of people that go through there.
There are three consult rooms. Two of the rooms have a shared room with the ultrasound equipment. This same u/s is rolled into the back room which is a OT plus couple of beds to prep patients as well as a file storage area.
There is another lab for the endocrinology as well as a separate lab for semen analysis, cryogenic storage etc. Finally, there is the semen "collection"room.
The space is tight which is a shame because there is certainly a lot of money being made per sq. ft. Once the chairs become full, people start sitting in chairs in the corridor. This is the same corridor through which patients are taken from the OT to the ward/ Consequently. when the gurney comes, folks have to get off the chairs to allow it to pass. The sperm collection room is a disgrace compared to all the other ones I have seen. The fancy ones have a nice bed along with a DVR with some helpful material. Overall, a shame in my opinion. Some basic aspects can certainly be improved.
The second complaint is on sharing of records. In the first cycle at Sure Fertility, we got a detailed record of the medicines prescribed and the results of the regular ultrasound scanning which was a good data on how the response to the stimulation was. At Manipal, unfortunately none of those records are shared.
The final piece was data on the oocytes retrieved and embryos formed. In retrospect, I think it is very important to share clear, scientific data on this with the patient in writing with photos of the individual embryos and oocytes as well. This also is a clear indication of quality of the output from what is really a method tried on us as patients. None of the places, Sure or Manipal did a good job here. One photo of one embryo is all we get with the discharge summary.
The reason why records and photographs and grading are important is because if the patients decide to change doctors, the new place has clear data on what was tried and how it worked. This is a change we would highly recommend at all IVF clinics that do not do this currently.
The cost of the second round of IVF worked out to Rs90000 for the cycle plus Rs 20000 for freezing plus medicines which were probably in the range of Rs 60 to 70000.
Disclaimer: This posts consist of a mix of opinion and facts. Whatever is written is purely our feedback. No medical expertise here. Also, we do not respond to comments on the post or offer advice. Just sharing a chronicle of our experience.
Finally, we made a decision to do one last IVF/ICSI and then abandon the effort if it does not work. Dr. Jyothi had recommended at the time of our second cycle beginning that ideally we should not do a third cycle in her opinion. She was concerned about the high doses required to stimulate in our case. However, Dr. Bina did not seem worried and there was nothing online indicating otherwise either. Our back up plan was to consider adoption. In our case, we ended up regretting this decision even though our next UVF resulted in a pregnancy. But that is for later.
Right now, I wanted to share some comments about IVF clinics in general and IVF at Manipal specifically.
At Manipal hospital, this clinic is on the 9th floor (as of our visits and even now). The space available is in no way sufficient to handle the volume of people that go through there.
There are three consult rooms. Two of the rooms have a shared room with the ultrasound equipment. This same u/s is rolled into the back room which is a OT plus couple of beds to prep patients as well as a file storage area.
There is another lab for the endocrinology as well as a separate lab for semen analysis, cryogenic storage etc. Finally, there is the semen "collection"room.
The space is tight which is a shame because there is certainly a lot of money being made per sq. ft. Once the chairs become full, people start sitting in chairs in the corridor. This is the same corridor through which patients are taken from the OT to the ward/ Consequently. when the gurney comes, folks have to get off the chairs to allow it to pass. The sperm collection room is a disgrace compared to all the other ones I have seen. The fancy ones have a nice bed along with a DVR with some helpful material. Overall, a shame in my opinion. Some basic aspects can certainly be improved.
The second complaint is on sharing of records. In the first cycle at Sure Fertility, we got a detailed record of the medicines prescribed and the results of the regular ultrasound scanning which was a good data on how the response to the stimulation was. At Manipal, unfortunately none of those records are shared.
The final piece was data on the oocytes retrieved and embryos formed. In retrospect, I think it is very important to share clear, scientific data on this with the patient in writing with photos of the individual embryos and oocytes as well. This also is a clear indication of quality of the output from what is really a method tried on us as patients. None of the places, Sure or Manipal did a good job here. One photo of one embryo is all we get with the discharge summary.
The reason why records and photographs and grading are important is because if the patients decide to change doctors, the new place has clear data on what was tried and how it worked. This is a change we would highly recommend at all IVF clinics that do not do this currently.
The cost of the second round of IVF worked out to Rs90000 for the cycle plus Rs 20000 for freezing plus medicines which were probably in the range of Rs 60 to 70000.
Disclaimer: This posts consist of a mix of opinion and facts. Whatever is written is purely our feedback. No medical expertise here. Also, we do not respond to comments on the post or offer advice. Just sharing a chronicle of our experience.
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