Failed IVF? Ayurveda can help you conceive

A failed IVF is extremely painful process for a couple. Specially for a woman this experience is horrifying. IVF seems to be no more a boon to few people. It was suppose to help couple with infertility to give them the hope of their life- a child.
Unfortunately, the rates of failures are more and couple are given options of donor eggs/donor sperms and surrogacy. These options do not go well along with many Indian couple and then they feel there is nothing left now to try. This is the end! 
​If you have given up on IUI or IVF or ICSI and looking for going back to natural conception, Ayurveda offers you much better in a healthy way. Ayurvedic medicines are time tested and needs no more clinical evidence (that’s what people ask for). 

IVF- A BOON OR A BANE?
We have the highest success rates. No matter where you are coming from. The clinic is at Bengaluru, just 45 minutes from the International airport, and is truly in the heart of Green city (garden city of India!). A return air ticket to India from the U.S. costs about US $1500-2000. Your husband can accompany you, or you can hand-carry his frozen sperm. - From the website of a Bengaluru-based Fertility Clinic (Undisclosed for privacy reasons).

What we are seeing today is a high inflated promotion of IVF success all over the country. Yes there are inflated success rates. Clinics rarely quoted the take-home-baby or live birth rate as the success rate; the 'success stories' too are magnified and over played.

In 1978, a miracle baby girl named Louise Brown was born in UK using first ever In vitro fertilization (IVF) process. It was proved that baby making can be an artificial process where natural ingredients necessary for the reproduction are either not present or have some problems. Exactly after 67 days in 1978 itself, In India too, a Kolkata based doctor claimed to have the first test tube baby – named Durga. And now we have over a million of test tube babies around the world.
Literally, IVF means fertilization in glass. Since 1978, we have seen a huge increase in numbers of couple going for IVF. Although the success rates of IVF, that is -a healthy baby birth are very less.

Started as a boon to the childless and frustrated couple with serious reproductive problems, this business had turned into a complex, painful, unnecessary and risky procedure. Few people called it a simple money making business which is growing very rapidly.

For a surprise many couple are able to afford the cost of it. However, there are people for whome IVF is not in their list either by choice or because of financial issues. So, what about couple who cannot afford the IVF cost? Should not be there any way for them to have a child of their own. And what about people for whom IVF failed multiple times. Is there anything which can help them.

Today I see many IVF or ICSI failed couple coming to my clinic. They tell me that everything was good- very good as told by the doctor- good egg size, good A grade embryos and even the uterus lining was good but it all ended up in a big failure. 

Where it all start- Desperation and Fear

Now, if you are not succeeding in falling pregnant form past 6- 12 months, your doctor might suggest IVF –a straight technical process due to various reasons. May be your AMH is low, may the egg quality is not great, may be tubal block, may be endometriosis and may be what not. May be it is unknown factors. Now when couple think of pregnancy they think of IVF. ‘I am not thinking of having a child now doctor, I am building my career, we need time, says a software engineer from Bengaluru,’ when she visited me last week for irregular cycle. She believes that she can freeze her eggs and got or IVF whenever she wants. Perhaps she will do so in future but not now.

The baby making market- without rules and ethics

In the United States, an IVF cycle costs around $20,000 (approximately Rs 9,00,000) as opposed to $2,000 (approximately Rs 90,000) in India. A surrogacy arrangement, including IVF, costs about $11,000 (approximately Rs 5,00,000) in India, while in the US, surrogacy alone, excluding ART charges, costs $15,000 (Rs 6,75,000).

"IVF treatment in Singapore is expensive. While treatment in India costs between US$4,000 and US$5,000, more or less, it is at least 1-1/2 times more in Singapore. Besides, Indian doctors have a good reputation as being highly competent and compassionate.(sic)" - The website of an Indian IVF clinic.
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There is no standardization of costs in the fertility industry, and prices for procedures like IUI, IVF and ICSI vary widely even within India. There are many hidden costs such as medicines cost, travel to the clinic, accommodation near the clinic, loss of work or earnings due to repeated clinic visits, etc. Moreover, the stress of getting it all done positively is huge, especially on women. Women who have undergone IVF process and it failed, says that, ‘it feels like coming back from hell. I wish if it was a success, I would have not complained. I tortured my body, lost so much money and nothing worked’.

The financial burden and fear of failures

In India, all IVF clinics are self-regulatory. The Indian Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) such as - IUI OR IVF OR ICSI, Bill has been pending for many years now. So IVF etc are privatised and thus, it is a growing field for todays’ world.  India is a global market for this process and Surrogacy. But not many practice the ethics and push the couple into opting for a chance to fall pregnant. Soon or never is their formula. I hear such stories on daily basis. I am just sharing my clinical experience here.

IVF sounds so technical that it makes us believe to have a baby in no course of time. Like, you just go inside, pay the lakhs of rupees, get injections and hurray, there you are, come out with a bump. I wish this could have so easy and successful. I have seen people taking loans and going for IVF and still paying their loans for their failed IVF. Some goes for 5-10 times. And some are still waiting for few things to get sorted before they go for IVF.

I wonder but I guess I know why. One of my patients told me, ‘doctor, my egg reserve is so low, and will I ever be a mother? Will see my own child? ‘.Despite, you know the fact that chances for IVF success is less, you take a chance.

Nature Vs Technology

IVF process claimed as an effective modern science to support so called imperfect natural reproduction. Negotiating between the natural processes with artificial (synthetic) hormones yet again and again challenged the doctor and the patient. If you have visited an IVF centre, you know what I am talking about. The ‘next time’ high chances of success are quite seductive by itself. Ask the couple who would have spent their whole savings on IVF process. They go desperately for it to experience parenthood. Unfortunately not many get success in this. Failure stories are many and they are covered under the carpet of every IVF centre. No one talks about failures.

I see many patients supporting the natural way of making baby the best way and they are fine to wait until it happens. One of them told me once with curiosity cum justification- ‘doctor there are so many IVF clinics now and I hear people going for IVF is increasing day by day. No one wants to wait. Believe in natural body system has lost. I wonder in next few decades we will all test tube babies only and natural conception will come as a surprise and may be human race will end there. If I get a daughter, perhaps, I will need to ask my daughter to choose naturally born boy to get married.’
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I was surprised with her thinking. But in a way it was a bitter truth. May be the matrimony sites will have a section on – are you naturally conceived or test tube born.  This is purely a social and cultural factor of IVF. 

Rethinking about natural reproduction- Think of Ayurveda

If you have given up on IUI or IVF or ICSI and looking for going back to natural conception, Ayurveda offers you much better in a healthy way. Ayurvedic medicines are time tested and needs no more clinical evidence (that’s what people ask for). It talks about a healthy reproduction and ways to treat issues of infertility. Ayurveda believes that first treat the cause; you will be out of disease by itself. Ayurveda is a medical science which explains focus on having a good progeny. It offers not only a child but a child of all goodness.

Almost a year now, I had a patient named Rita (named change to hide identity). She was 31 years old with regular cycle, AMH of 1.89 ng/ml, good FSH and LH levels. She had no other health problems. Husband was 34 years old with no significant issues. They had 4 IUI failed, and two months back they had a ICSI failed. In report we saw that only 7 eggs retrieved and out of them 3 embryos survived to be transferred. She had a good endometrium thickness. But unfortunately it all failed. She had 2 BC grade and 1 B grade embryo as per discharge summary.

She was weeping continuously when she walked into my clinic. Form past 2 month she was not sleeping well. Her hunger was gone and she was constantly looking for a answer of why her IVF failed when all her hormonal levels were good. It is tough to accept the failure of IVF , moreover when you are so confident of it getting it positive. I spoke to both of them and asked her husband to see our male doctor to discuss hi issues. Generally the blame of IVF goes to the women that her egg quality was not good enough.

In Ayurveda we prefer to examine both- men and women and diagnose them Ayurvedically. I examined her and found that there is imbalance in Vata and Pitta. They need to be balanced. I started with Virechana procees (One of the Panchakarma) of 15 days. After this kind of detox, I put her on our formulas; ghee based medicine and some tablets and powders. Meanwhile I asked her to take Basti chikitsa every cycle. We also got know issues with her husband. Though his semen analysis was normal, we found left varicocele and two small cysts in epididymis. He also started his treatment.

I asked Rita to practice Yoga and meditation on daily basis. I also suggested her to get out of the idea and pressure of having a baby soon. I know, seems terrible, right. But trust me this works.  I encouraged Rita to watch comedy shows and may attend stand-up comedy shows. And spend time in creativity and her hobbies. My main moto was to keep her occupied and moreover, happy in all situations. Ayurveda says- for Garbhadharana (conception), the best treatment is Manas Prasadana- happy state of the mind/heart. So, its not just having timely intercourse. Your mind plays an important role too.
After eight months, she missed her period and texted me about her positive urine pregnancy test. She was shocked and asked me, ‘doctor how is this possible, when IVF has failed, how come I fell pregnant naturally’.
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I said, ‘if you believe that your body can heal and do all the things you want, your body will respond. You gave an opportunity to correct the imbalances in your body rather than forcing the body to make a baby in all imbalanced and artificially created environments (hormonal injections), and that’s why falling pregnant was just a ‘side benefit of a healthy reproductive system’.
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Give your body what it needs to correct itself, help it by herbs or nutrition or a better lifestyle. You cannot think of having a baby when your body is ready for it. IVF can surely not be helpful in all the odds. Choose Ayurveda as early s possible. Ayurveda suggest a prenatal process for a healthy baby making process. You will be surprised to hear about the every detail Ayurveda has given to the reproduction. So healthy body and happy mind makes many babies, so be kind. Please be kind to yourself.

Namaskara
Vaidya Vibhuti Rao
References:
Somigliana E, Vigano P, Benaglia L, Busnelli A, Berlanda N, Vercellini P. Management of endometriosis in the infertile patient. Semin Reprod Med 2017;35:31–37.
https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1744-8603-7-27