Couple from the US

My husband and I had been married for three years before we decided we were ready to have a baby. We were still in our late 20s and thought we had all the time in the world to start a family. But when 6 months and then a year went by and I was still not pregnant, we grew worried and consulted my Ob/ Gyn who recommended a series of tests for me and my husband. Gathering all the test results took nearly 6 months as she would wait for the result of one test before ordering the next. Everything appeared fine, except possibly a problem with the semen analysis.

We decided at this point to consult infertility specialists at a leading medical institution in the US. We considered ourselves lucky as we lived close to such a good medical facility and chose the director of the IVF program as our physician. We were recommended to undergo intrauterine insemination. We had three unsuccessful cycles with clomid. During this time, we were considering the possibility of needing IVF and examining our options. We were extremely unhappy with the interactions we had with our physician. We only saw him at our first consultation and then at the follow up after the failed IUIs. During treatment visits, we saw other physicians in the practice or this being a leading medical school, we often were seen by residents/ fellows.

While we didn’t mind this (after all doctors are humans and can’t be in the clinic all the time: weekends and holidays!), what concerned us was that questions & concerns during the treatment cycles were dealt with by nurses or fellows and very often I had to call 2-3 times before we got any answer at all! I expressed my concern to the physician following our failed IUIs and he as much as said that patients receiving IVFs received better treatment and got their attention.

Rather than making us feel better (as IVF was the next step for us), this helped seal our decision not to pursue IVF at this facility where patients receiving different treatment options were given different kinds of attention. This was an intensely emotional time for us and to be told that we were any less deserving of attention than a couple undergoing IVF made us angry. We tried one other practice closer to our home and decided that we did not like them either.

In the meantime, we started researching options in India and my husband found Dr. Malpani’s web-site. I am originally from Bombay and had heard of them and seen their name in magazines and newspapers in India. We decided to contact them and were very pleased with the prompt responses we received from Dr. Malpani. He told us in no uncertain terms that what would be best for us was ICSI and that IUIs would be a waste of our time.

We made a trip to Bombay in March 2006 especially for the IVF cycle and were very happy with the warm environment of the clinic combined with the professional attitude of Drs. Anjali and Aniruddha Malpani. I had already started the medications in the US and was responding well to the ovarian stimulation. Several good eggs were retrieved and we had 15 good embryos. We transferred 4 embryos and froze the remaining. We returned back to the US in a few days. Unfortunately, I did not get pregnant. But we still had enough good embryos to try a frozen cycle. Due to a family emergency we returned to India in July 2006. We considered doing the frozen transfer then, but were discouraged by Dr. Anjali Malpani. She felt that we would stand a much better chance of success if we did the transfer when we were stronger emotionally.

This was great advice. In Nov 2006, we returned back to the clinic. We had 5 good embryos after the thaw and we transferred them all. This time I stayed in Bombay longer and two weeks later we got the wonderful news we had been waiting three years for! I was pregnant!! Dr. Anjali Malpani did an ultrasound a few days later and confirmed the pregnancy.

We returned back to the US to the care of a wonderful new Ob/ Gyn. In Aug 2007 I gave birth to a precious baby boy. We feel truly blessed and are convinced that we would not have been able to become parents without the help of Drs. Malpani and their staff. We thank them for the wonderful care we received. We would recommend them readily to anyone seeking infertility treatment. You not only get high quality state of the art medical treatment, but are also received with warmth, care and compassion which we felt were sorely lacking in the experiences we had in the US.
We will be happy to discuss our experiences further. Feel free to contact us at vkm_ivf@yahoo.com