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There is no doubt that modern medicine inspires awe. IVF laboratories and sophisticated ultrasound scanning machines appear very impressive and reassuring when you are infertile. However, paradoxically, even though the effectiveness of reproductive technology has improved dramatically, more infertile patients than ever before have become dissatisfied with their medical care today. This situation has resulted in a move towards 'alternative' medicine, which has become increasingly popular all over the world. Even in the United States of America (the bastion of high-tech scientific medicine), more than 20% of infertile couples have consulted an alternative medicine practitioner, mainly because they were unhappy with modern medical care.
There are many reasons for this unhappiness with modern medicine. Patients increasingly feel that medicine has become too commercial and that doctors are too busy to spend time with them. They are unhappy with the impersonal nature of modern medicine, especially when the doctor spends more time looking at their lab reports and ultrasound scans rather than with them. While it is true that patients need technology, they also need tender, loving care; after all, doctors need to look after not only their medical problems, but also their emotional needs!
Alternative medicine, on the other hand, offers a markedly different perspective. Rather than focussing on the infertility in isolation, alternative medicine treats the patient as a whole; hence the popular term, holistic medicine. Doctors practicing alternative medicine sit down and talk to the patient; they touch and feel him and ask many questions. And such attention feels good, in refreshing contrast to the modern doctor who rarely has even 15 minutes to spend with the patient. (Often, tender loving care and personal attention are all that alternative medicine practitioners have to offer, but they offer it very well indeed!) There is no doubt of the efficacy of the placebo effect, and even the simple act of touching the patient, can have a therapeutic effect. Also, alternative medicine doctors are very good at reassuring patients, as contrasted with the coldly scientific approach of western medicine.
Many patients (usually those with unexplained infertility or with ovulatory disorders) do conceive when they use alternative medicine. However, the practice of alternative medicine in India today leaves a lot to be desired. For one, such medicine does not have a universally accepted scientific basis; hence, it is difficult to rigorously analyze its claims. Since there is no need for formal publication or peer review in alternative systems of medicine, there is little scientific documentation available about their efficacy or side effects, so that it becomes difficult to confirm claims or dispute them.
© Dr. Aniruddha Malpani and Dr. Anjali Malpani www.drmalpani.com
Credits: How to Have a Baby: Overcoming Infertility
