Our IVF Journey -> Ggn | Delhi | Noida

Everybody wants a 'bleeding' wife !

Yes, from the place where I come from, Infertility is still a jinxed, less-talked-about thing. Get married before 26 and get first child before 28. But what if your dear wife suffering from a stubborn PCOD??

I am 31 year old male and my dear Wife is 29. We are based out of Delhi-NCR and today I take this opportunity to jot down our long and tiring story of parenthood via IVF and how an Angel came in our life wearing a white Doctor's coat.

OK for those who are looking for infertility expert but running short of time or probably don't want to go through each and every minute details, here is to juice it up -> Reach out to Max Hospital, Panchsheel Park/Noida/Ppg -> book appointment with Dr, Bhavana Banga -> surrender your case to her's safest hands and you can thank me later. 

After 3 failed IUIs, and 1 failed IVF, painful process of egg retrieval followed by failed IVF, after timeless readings, after repeated failures, after loosing false positive hopes multiple times,  after domestic fights and knocks, after 2 years of hide-and-seek with our parents, when we were at living at edge of falling apart. This was the time when we stumbled upon Dr. Bhavana Banga at Max Noida on 31st Aug'16.

We have met many 'best infertility' doctors by now,  but Dr. Bhavana's out-of-the-box approach, ability to connect-the-dots were so impressive that our confidence towards parenthood started to re-build. We followed everything she said, like a holy grail, because we understood that we are in the safest hands. And It paid well, By end of Jan'17 my wife is pregnant, continuing well and our due-date is in Sept'17.

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Ok, Back to our IVF journey, I will try to cover each and every detail here, our goof-ups, problems and how we were able to resolve them. It has been a treacherous path for us with all those stubborn PCOD, High TSH levels, Diabetics,  hematoma and threaten pregnancy and on and on and how we managed to pass through all of it.

Soon after our marriage in 2011, I got to know that my dear wife has this problem of delayed/improper menstrual cycle, there were 4-5 months when her menses didn't come at all. Hesitatingly we stepped in the nearest gynae clinic, got the pills and she managed to pass on menses.

Later; next year I got job posting in Gurgaon,  and we relocated to gurgaon and kept our search open for gynecologist here. Based on reviews on Practo.com, we decided to meet a doctor,  fortunately her reviews were great and she was at a close proximity from our place.

She wrote various bloodwork and only after we received reports, She introduced us with 'three' words which were about to turn our life upside-down. They were High TSH levels, High Sugar levels and PCOD/PCOS(poly cyst overian syndrome). She was a very learned doctor and told us about it in detail.

She was a wonderful gynecologist but unfortunately not an infertility expert, We were made to try wide variety of pills from metformin to argin sachet to HUCUG injections, ozomet, rejumet, mytol-F, clofert and list goes on, numerous follicular studies (I counted for some time, then stopped) Another 6 months passed, nothing triggered.

Another gynae once visited her clinic who happens to better ' infertility expert' then her. She asked us for Hysterogram (test to check if tubes were blocked or not), fortunately they were not blocked but it was not-an-easy test. I remeber my wife only managed to crawl for next 2 days.

After natual tries, natural tries assisted with HCG inj., pills failed and many months passed by. That gynae gave us the idea of IUI. First IUI was done at her clinic - failed. Second IUI happend at her clinic - Bhcg was >10, raised for few days but later turned out to be a chemical, false positive.

We decided another IUI, but this time from Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon,  - again it failed.

Though she was a wonderful doctor, but my only issue with her is that she should have told us clearly that our case was quite stubborn and beyond her capability since she wasn't an infertility expert, dragging the case unnecessariliy and doing trial-and-error is not the way to go.  Nevertheless we learnt this hard way. Also after 2 years, I got job in Noida and relocated here. 


Encounter with WORST nightmare : INDIRA IVF

Call it our sheer bad luck or carried away with tall claims or futile efforts to save some money (as already we spent aprx. 4L by that time) we found ourselves at Indira IVF, Patel Nagar, N. Delhi.  but fact remains the same, It was by far a worst hospital for us, though backed up by some great advertisement and publicity especially in small cities.

First, every thing was in cash, no cards accepted weather its for hospital or pharmacy.
Second, their head doctor, Dr. Arvind has no time for the patients, you have to catch him, wait for him to come out from OT for hours.
Third, there are around 3-4 "doctors", (not sure if they were real doctors), but they use to wear lab-coat, they are very arrogant, and hardly any knowledge.
Fourth, They will never give you any real picture of how many follicules are being created in any study.
Fifth, you have to get sub-cutaneous injection from the hospital only, (in groups), ours was the group of around 20 females which were due to egg-retrival on that very day.
Sixth, nobody will tell you that how many eggs were retrived, and which type of transfer to have, day-3 , day-5 ,FET etc. They will decide everything themselves. 
Seventh, After everything was done, we got a handout that 12 eggs were retrieved, out of which only 4 converted to day3 embryo and they transferred all 4 embroys, We wanted to have Day5 blast, but it was too late by then.

My below 2 points are very crucial:
Eighth, My Wife was 28 and suffering with PCOD, she used to produce multiple eggs even with simple HCG inj. that how come it was only 12 with entire IVF process. She felt enormous pain , bloating (OHSS symptom) due to which they cancelled and asked for Frozen cycle, its a sign that she produced a lot more eggs than they claimed. (AND LET ME TELL YOU SHE HAD SAME PAIN/BLOATING WHEN WE HAD ANOTHER IVF FROM MAX FEW MONTHS AFTER THIS ONE), do you want know how many Eggs were retrieved/picked, they were staggering 38. 
Isnt it weird, that she produced only 12 EGGS at Indira IVF and 38  in Max after some months and was on exactly same drugs. What if they sell your eggs without your agreement??

Ninth - Report shows that My wife's TSH was very high (7.5) two days before her IVF (embryo transfer) was scheduled at Indira IVF, they still went ahead and carried it out. Later on, we got to know that TSH levels (>3.5) are vital for implantation to trigger. This is how INDIRA IVF milked money from us, they never had any intention for success. 

If anybody is getting success at INDIRA IVF, they are just very lucky, that's it!! 

Tenth, After our IVF failed, and we went to meet Dr. Arvind Vaid, after calling him before-hand, yet we waited for 5-6 hrs and every time we inquired, we got only answer that "Dr. was busy". No one wants to meet his failed cases! Later on, after quite persuasion, another doctor managed to meet us. And the Icing on the cake..she was only interested in selling like a salesman. she gave us a "package" of next two IVFs , with some ala-carte. That was the point we felt cheated and my wife busted into tears!

Off course, we were not going back!

Above 4 pics are of Indira IVF, Pic1 - our Day of transfer was 30/3, on 27/3 we got report of TSH which was 7.5 (Pic 2), still they went ahead and did the transfer.

Pic 3 - It says only 12 eggs were retrived. 
Pic 4 is the classic where that salesman cum doctor explained us that more packages were unlocked along with ala-carte!!




.....The appearance of silver lining

We did nothing for 3-4 months except meeting 1-2 gynae in local areas but were not able to gain courage, later we met one of our known doctor, Dr. Gunjan (Internal medicine) and casually discussed her about our case, though she was new in Delhi-NCR, still she took out time discussed with her fellow doctor, Dr Indira Viz; who happens to be wonderful person and a great soul herself, We met her later and she recognized all details, Medicine profession is indeed called noble profession because such people are still practising. So a week later Dr. Gunjan called me and asked me to meet Dr Bhavana Banga at MAX Hospital, Noida. 

At that time, we didn't know that our long and tiring search was about to end here, we nodded and reached MAX hospital half-heartedly. BUT soon after we met Dr. Bhavana, we both found ourselves relieved. No other doctor has ever taken so much interest in our case. During our 10 min. long meeting with her, she repeatedly told my wife that "you will get pregnent, for sure, just a matter of time", To be honest, first I thought that she might be saying this just to cheer us up. But later when we met other couples, we got to know another quality of her,  She doesn't builds houses of cards, she doesn't give false assurances, she just calls spade a spade.

She tracks everything in her brown diary that she carries with her, marks everything in calendar. She makes you feel very comfortable, She is always available to listen to your queries, irrespective of how trivial they are. If she couldn't pick up phone, she texts, If she couldn't text; She calls back as soon as she gets free. That is something like personal touch and interest in our case which was missing in all previous doctors.

We went ahead, IVF started, egg retrieval happened, I myself counted, their were 38 matured follicles. Out of which 18 lived and become DAY5  blastocyst embryos (12 Grade I, 6 Grade II). On her advice we went ahead with FET (frozen embryo transfer). Unfortunately my wife couldn't conceive that time, it was heart-breaking because everything was just perfect. But Dr. Bhavana consoled us, and enlightened positivism and then we all 3 decided to have another transfer in very next cycle. Since we had quite a lot of DAY5 Blastocysts, we could take our chances.

See pic shows there were 38 eggs retrieved at MAX panchsheel.

Transfer happened, 15 days wait period ended, BHCG report came and walllahhh!! It was 1023.  Another test after 3 days and it was 2100+. It was surely an implant!

 In Pic, Our first ever positive BHCG report

Few days after my wife felt pink spotting, though less but high enough to skip our heartbeat. Quick call to Dr. Bhavana and she asked to stop clexane (inj. blood thinner) and ecosprin tablet. 

2 days later, it was pain in lower abdomen, my wife bleeded like day 2/3 menses and boom! It was brownish blood with some tissue-like thing. Heartached, we understood, it was the end. It was only Dr. Bhavana who didnt loose hope and asked us to do another BHcg. God is Great ! BHcg Levels were almost doubling.

Pic shows her BHCG levels even after my wife bleed profusely for the entire day.

6 weeks later, We could see the sac. and later the heartbeat. Now, my wife has completed 12 weeks, NT/NB scan is good, This was the first time we could see our 6.5 Cms baby, tiny toes, tiny noes of our baby !!

Instead of metformin, my wife is now on regular Huminsulin (insulin) injections due to her diabetic status, we are monitoring her TSH levels and Sugar levels quite aggressively as its a very precious pregnancy.

Now we are under supervision of another Doctor who is a well-known Gynae as Dr. Bhavana's scope officially ended. But She is the one who sown seeds of hope in own infertile life. She is indeed an unsung hero ! May God Bless Her !!
..and this is how our angel, Dr. Bhavana looks like https://www.maxhealthcare.in/doctor/bhavna-banga

Please feel free to comment. We will be happy to extend our helping hand. You can also write us at singhgaur1986@gmail.com

I have also started a whatsapp group to bring people on same page,  where people can share opinions and guide others, ask queries freely.  NO Promotions, NO doctors, NO pharma, NO Non-sense. Just pure advice and experience sharing. If interested, mail your name and contact number at singhgaur1986@gmail.com, will add you.


EDIT1 : We did another scan at 18weeks, our baby is growing normally. My wife's weight has now started increasing very slowly, it dropped few weeks back as she was vomiting quite a lot and reduced eating food. But now vomiting stopped and she started eating again. Hoping for the best. Will keep updating regularly.

EDIT 2: On 25th May 2017, from past 2-3 days my wife is feeling heartburns and pain in chest. Doctor says its normal as once embryo grows it tend to push stomach as a result stomach acid tend to move towards oesophagus. But unfortunately sshe is not able to eat properly due to this. We are trying couple of remedies like cold milk, antacid, Pan-D, lets hope it gets resolved soon..


Grand Update:  finally got some free time after 15 days to update this. Good news is "tiny toes" have arrived on last day of August.  Mom and baby both are healthy. It was a caesarean section, so took little extra time for my lovely wifeyy to get on her feets, but a fortnight has passed and things are pretty awesome. Just one look of this gifted child makes my day!! God bless us all. 

P.S. - Will post a picture of the child soon, also write soon about the interesting turns during last trimester, and how we abruptly changed our gynae in the last month and how she wonderfully handled the situation and calm down things. Stay tuned brothers and Sisters!