The stem cell scam for patients with premature ovarian failure

While many patients with ovarian failure understand that their best shot at having a baby is by going in for donor eggs, some of them never contemplate selecting this option for varied reasons. Muslim women for example cannot choose this option because it is against the doctrines of their religion. However, this is where unscrupulous doctors come in take advantage of patients’ desperation to milk them with no results to show for it.

I had an encounter with a patient who visited such a doctor in India with the hope that she would be able to get a baby from her own eggs. She had been lied to by the doctor that she was going to get pregnant once stem cell therapy had been carried out. After several very expensive injections of " embryonic stem cells " into her blood, she was happy when the doctor did an ultrasound scan to show her that her ovaries now miraculously had eggs ! According to that doctor, the stem cells were to supposedly travel to her ovaries and transform into eggs, after which she could go in for IVF with her own eggs.

I can only imagine the patient’s agonizing heartbreak when she found out that the whole thing was a scam and that she could never get pregnant. For a patient who had travelled to the US and UK in search of treatment (where they told her to go for a donor egg); and having spent so much money without success, it is sad that patients are still so vulnerable to quacks; and that there still exists such heartless doctors who prey on patients’ lack of information . It is doctors like this who cheat patients who tarnish the name of the entire medical profession.

Why good IVF doctors do only IVF (and nothing else)

While every IVF specialist is equipped with the requisite knowledge in gynecology and obstetrics, IVF is a very specialized branch and that is why IVF specialists worldwide should stick to doing only IVF and not try to multitask by doing hysterectomies and caesarean sections in order to increase their income.

Most IVF specialists the world over have dedicated their time, resource and energy to practising only IVF - this is a full-time job ! However, most Indian IVF clinics are run by general gynecologists. This implies that they practice IVF only on a part-time basis alongside with offering a host of other gynecological treatments. The end result is sub-standard IVF services to patients, mostly ending up in low success rates. IVF patients should therefore go for specialists who have dedicated all their time and energy in doing IVF because this means that they are passionate and confident in what they do without the fear of having high rates of failure and running out of patients.

Moreover, such dedicated IVF specialists have spent a lot of time in honing their skills and will offer personalized treatment, never leaving their patients complaining about being left in the hands of doctor’s assistants as they travel abroad in search of more money from other patients. Patients should therefore review their options before they choose an IVF doctor instead of airing complaints about having been heated because they failed to do their homework in searching for competent IVF specialists. 

A national chain of branded IVF clinics in India

The inefficiencies in the Indian health sector are increasingly attracting venture capitalists (VCs) to invest in this space IVF in particular looks very attractive and many VCs have put their money in it. However, with most of those investments modeled in the form of a national IVF chains, most investors have had to close their chains because of the failure of their management and operations structure.

The problem is that most VCs have taken advantage of the comparatively lower cost of setting up an IVF clinic to set up a large chain of clinics without putting in place a well-defined mechanism to manage their operations in such a way that they are efficient and synchronized. An IVF chain is bound to fail if the success rates of pregnancies in individual clinics have wide variations and if they lack a single head doctor to play a policing role in monitoring the operations of the chains to ensure they are streamlined.

The failure of some of the branches of these IVF clinics to help patients achieve pregnancy is likely to damage their reputation. Patients will feel cheated and will write negative reviews online about their experience in these IVF clinics. Moreover, an IVF chain is bound to collapse if it lacks dedicated IVF specialists whose sole responsibility is to handle IVF patients as opposed to handling all manner of gynecological cases such as endoscopy and hysterectomy in attempting to maximize their income.

 
Very  busy clinics will try to improve their profitability by treating as many patients as possible. However, once they cross  the optimal level of 1000 cycles per year , they will fail to offer personalized patient care. They are likely to experience a huge numbers of patient complaints and therefore lose their patients to their competitors. 

At Malpani Infertility Clinic, as a refreshing contrast,  we offer  very hands on personalised care to our patients.  We are a boutique clinic, which pampers its patients !

Managing an IVF patient’s expectations

Managing the high expectations of patients concerning the outcome of an IVF cycle is one of the hardest tasks that IVF specialists have to face. It is only natural for infertile patients to have high hopes of success after IVF and it’s only natural for doctors to be always optimistic and keep their patients’ hopes alive.

However, the problem arises when the outcome is negative and the patient feels cheated. This is normally the case when a doctor is overenthusiastic about IVF treatment and fails to clearly disclose to the patient the possibility of failure for fear of loosing out to doctors in other IVF clinics. This can be traced back to the fact that doctors are naturally confident in their work and they never want to appear doubtful about their job.

Good IVF specialists should be open with their patients and try to make them understand that there is always the possibility of failure regardless of the clinic they visit. The way forward would be for patients to arm themselves with information therapy ; and seek independent counseling to prepare them psychologically for all possible outcomes.

The guaranteed pregnancy option is another way of helping patients cope. It reduces complaints and information about the Malpani IVF clinic program can be found at http://www.drmalpani.com/guaranteedpregnancy.htm. 

IVF patients should stop viewing IVF as a single-cycle treatment, and understand that it can take them time to achieve their goal ; that patience and persistence pay off ; and that the reward is well worth the time and effort !

Why aren’t infertile patients better informed?

It is disheartening to see how ill-informed infertile patients are concerning their medical condition, especially in this new world order, where lots of information is available online and can be accessed 24/7 via smartphones. It is even more disturbing when most of these patients happen to be the elite who spend a lot of time surfing the internet , but never bother to do medical research.

Doctors certainly aren’t omnipresent and will therefore never be able to answer all the questions and complaints of patients all the time. Dr. Malpani says this is an opportunity that infertile clinics should make the most of. Even though the information available online today online is of large volume and potentially confusing, IVF clinics should invest money and energy in developing straightforward patient educational materials, so that patients have realistic expectations of their treatment, and do not feel cheated just because their IVF cycle fails.

Providing reliable educational information helps IVF clinics, as their doctors and IVF specialists don't need to spend as much time in educating patients about the procedures. This information can be provided much more effectively through online video, which is a much more engaging medium and ensures patients will remember that they see. They can review this many times as well , to reinforce their learning; and share it with their spouse and family members , if they need to.