We all know that there has been a tremendous change after the internet became popular and widely available, but is it good or bad and to what extend? Well I can proudly say that, it has assisted me to help and guide a considerable number of couples who are going through difficulties in conceiving.
I provide free online consultation to patients through email and around quite a number of patients from all around the world write to me everyday.For some of them, the medical expertise is not available as they are staying in remote areas, for some couples specialist consultation has a long waiting period and sometimes they do not have the finance to pay the huge private consultation fee.I even have some patients who work close to my clinic, but they start work at *** am and finish at *** pm, so they do not have the time to visit the clinic and hence consult me through email.
So what is there in it for me? Why do I spent my time for free email consultation?
As an infertility specialist, I crave to do some good for the society, because at the end of the day this gives me satisfaction.Occasionally I do feel secretly guilty that I am increasing the population, when I help women to conceive, even though it is to built happy families.Only if adoption was easy all around the world!
The fact that I acquired knowledge with great difficulty , sacrificing my personal life and health, studying and working day and night for nearly 20 years has to have some meaning .Providing service to citizens around the globe is worth all the troubles I took.The energy in the universe is constant, so the energy I spent all these years has to serve someone.
It gives me immense satisfaction to provide honest, truthful and scientific advice to any person who sends me an email enquiry.Normally to get an expert opinion, it takes several hours of waiting in clinics and repeated visits, especially during ART procedures like IVF and ICSI.Women often leave jobs or take long leave, which is totally unnecessary.They can sent all scan copies and reports by internet and they need not visit the clinic to take the injections and medicines as they can be taken locally.We have done this for several patients from countries like UK, USA and Australia.If they have difficulty in getting injections locally, it is bought online with prescription from us.When they need monitoring, they do scans for follicular study and sent the report by email and after going through the reports we give them the expert advice.For the IVF procedure, the woman just needs to take 1 day off for egg pickup and half day off for the embryo transfer.So there is no need to leave the job or take long leave.
In email consultation, the doctor has plenty of time as they are not rushed.The emails can be opened at a convenient time and hence it helps in thorough evaluation and taking of precise decisions which are not biased or hasty.Distinguishing factors like Colour, race, wealth etc cannot be perceived through email, we all know that even in this modern day and age, these factors can affect the way we are treated.
But the downside is that, there is lot of false information on internet, which can misguide the person who is searching for tips and treatment online.So be alert when you are researching online and always take expert opinion before commencing any treatment.
Dr.Anita Mani
Infertility& Surrogacy Specialist at Gift IVF Centre
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