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Let’s
first take a look at why there
are so many harmful and ineffective
treatments still around. Patients
would expect that all good doctors
would offer only safe and effective
treatment – so why should useless
and ineffective treatments still
exist ?
The
reason for this is that infertility
is a complex area, and there
is still a lot of confusion
about the best treatment option
for many common problems even
amongst doctors . When doctors
disagree amongst themselves,
how is a patient to make sense
of all the options ?
Most
doctors take pride in their
own personal experience , and
trust their own clinical judgment.
Even though there is no proof
that the treatments are actually
helpful, they remember patients
who conceived after taking that
treatment.
Few doctors are broad minded
enough to study the scientific
literature critically, and few
have the objectivity to practice
evidence-based medicine.
Let’s look at the example of
a patient who is doing her third
IVF cycle. She starts doing
acupuncture, and conceives in
her third IVF cycle. In her
mind, the fact that she failed
her first two IVF cycles, and
conceived only after doing acupuncture
means that it was the acupuncture
which was responsible for her
IVF success. In reality, it’s
well known that IVF treatments
have a cumulative conception
rate of about 30% per cycle
for the first 4 cycles, which
means she may very well have
conceived in her third cycle
even if she hadn’t done the
acupuncture.
Here’s a list of what
we feel are dangerous treatments
of which patients should beware
!
1. Varicocele surgery.
2. Medical therapy for low sperm
counts.
3. Surgery for fibroids. Fibroids
are very common benign tumours
found in the uterus of many
young women.
4. Surgery for removing an ovarian
cyst. Ovarian cysts are very
common in young women, which
is why they are very common
in infertile women. They
just be aspirated if required.
5. Medical therapy for endometriosis.
6. Too many stimulated IUI's
7. treating hypogonadotropic
male with hormones.
Not only
do all these treatments waste
time, money and energy, they
also cause patients to get fed
up and frustrated, so that they
end up losing confidence in
doctors - and in themselves!
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