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Searching for information on the Net is very similar to looking up a book. You turn to the index to look for a particular topic, and on the Net you can use one of the many search engines available, such as www.hotbot.com, www.altavista.com, www.excite.com or www.infoseek.com. The trouble is that these engines are unintelligent, so that a search usually retrieves thousands of websites the majority of which are completely irrelevant to your query and it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Search engines are most useful when you are looking for information on a rare problem, or very specific information only. Be sure to try several different search engines when looking for information since each one can have different listings included in their database. You also need to double-check your spellings - an error can mean you may not retrieve any useful information at all! Try to be as precise as possible in order to retrieve relevant information only. Thus, looking for "laparoscopic surgery for treatment of endometriosis" will give you more useful results than just looking for "endometriosis".
It's easy to get lost in the flood of garbage that a standard search produces, which is why many infertile couples often despair of ever being able to find anything useful or understandable on the Net. In order to make their life easier, experts have put together evaluated subject gateways or medical search engines, to make directed searching for relevant information easier. As their name implies these search services provide the user with a gateway to medical resources on the Internet. However, rather than provide a comprehensive (but unranked or unsorted) listing of Internet sites, only those that meet a defined quality threshold are included. The websites are also ranked, according to their quality and usefulness, as determined by these experts. These gateways are produced by medical libraries, doctors and other organizations, and are useful to both new Internet users --- who may be unsure where to begin --- and experienced surfers who are frustrated with ploughing through the inevitable volume of irrelevant dross when using any of the more general search tools. Examples of such gateways for patients include: www.healthatoz.com, www. achoo.com, and www.medhelp.org.
If you are a novice, it can be helpful to have a friendly doctor (or medical student) or a librarian to guide you with your first few searches, to teach you how to search efficiently. A cybercafe is a good place to learn how to surf! If you want a comprehensive search of the Internet you must be prepared to search multiple gateways and search engines - the much sought after 'one-stop information medical source' has yet to appear. Remember that there's a lot more on the Net than just tons of textual information on thousands of websites you can admire anatomy in three dimensions, thanks to virtual reality, and even watch video clips of laparoscopic surgery online! However, mining the Net for information need not be a one-dimensional affair the real charm of the Net lies in its interactivity, so that you can get a response to your queries!
There are many infertility specialists on the internet who will respond to medical questions - free! The premier site on the web for this service for infertile patients is at http://www.fertilethoughts.net/malpani/ where the authors of this book, Drs Malpani, answer queries sent by email. These responses are meant to educate the questioner and the public and cannot be a method of rendering personal medical care. All the questions and answers are archived (what are called FAQs or frequently asked questions), so that everyone can search, view, and benefit from the information. INCIID Interactive Infertility Forums at http://www.inciid.org/interact.html allows access to many medical forums (where you can get answers to queries from medical experts); support forums (where you can interact with other infertile couples); and frequent online chat sessions on various topics.
© Dr. Aniruddha Malpani and Dr. Anjali Malpani www.drmalpani.com
Credits: How to Have a Baby: Overcoming Infertility
