From: albertinamel <albertinamel@...>
Subject: [immunologysupport] Poor experience w/fertility clinic
To: immunologysupport@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, 2 January, 2009, 5:31 AM

Sorry this is a little long. I just thought I would share a poor
doctor's experience I had w/the group. It was w/Dr. Bayat at SIRM.
I only contacted him b/c SIRM advertises their use of Intralipids and
I cannot afford Ivig. (I'll be doing Intralipid w/Dr. Acacio
instead, who has fabulous patient rapport.) To start, I had spent
$15 to photocopy my entire medical history and send it to him
Priority Mail, and he didn't even have it for our phone consultation.
Then, when I tried to explain to him my two primary concerns:
treating my immunological issues w/Intralipids and checking me for
Asherman's syndrome or other intrauterine problems, he dismissed both
of them.

For the first, I totally understand that a lot of doctors do not
subscribe to Dr. Beer's philosophies. However, I was under the
impression from that SIRM was accepting of treating immunological
disorders. But it was obvious from talking w/him that he thought
immunology was not my problem and that my problem was a combination
of my high FSH (10.5-11.3 for the past year) and possible poor male
morphology - the first time that anyone has suggested that! My
husband's count and motility has always been off-the-charts fabulous,
but he had one bad semen analysis that showed poor morphology - taken
on a day he hadn't adhered to the abstinence requirement, so my IVF
clinic said to throw out those results and re-do it. Still, Bayat
was focused on that one test result.

For the second, checking out intrauterine issues, it really angered
me that he was so dismissive. I have had pretty bad pain at
ovulation ever since my D&C two years ago. Also, my periods have
been scant and brown. (I'm now scheduled to see an Asherman's
specialist who thinks I have plausible reason to suspect an
intrauterine issue, but that's another story.) It really takes a lot
of nerve to tell someone who is experiencing monthly pain that you
don't think it's a problem! Maybe it's not a problem to *HIM* b/c
he's only thinking of whether it's something he could circumvent with
IVF or Clomid. But it's a problem to *ME* b/c it degrades my quality
of life each month, even if I decide to adopt and never carry another
child.

On top of it all, he told me that he didn't think I'd ever conceive
w/o IVF. What terrible bedside manner! I mean, that could be true -
I know my FSH is elevated, which indicates suboptimal ovarian
function. But he seemed more interested in racking up another IVF
patient than listening to me. Bayat essentially told me that he
couldn't be bothered w/treating me w/Ivig, Intralipids, Lovenox,
Prednisone, or anything else unless I was willing to fork out $$ to
do IVF w/his clinic. Without IVF, he considered everything else a
waste of time. (Mind you, he's telling me all of this without my lab
results or complete medical history in front of him!) So I asked
him, "Why would I go back and just repeat the things I've already
tried without adding any additional therapy, like an adjunct
immunotherapy treatment? Wouldn't it be silly to just go back and
keep trying the things I know have failed?" He just insisted that
eventually you're likely get a hit after striking out a bunch of
times, but that my FSH indicated I would probably get a lot of
strikes first (my metaphor, not his).

I don't have the time or money to waste on that tactic, so I've
written him off. I'm much more likely to transfer my remaining
frozen embryos to a surrogate than try his "blind faith" approach to
more IVF and hoping the odds miraculously work out in my favor,
despite my cytokine, thrombophilia, and NK-cell issues.

Anyway, that's my experience w/SIRM L.A. FWIW...
Tina