Is Empirical Therapy in IVF good or bad?

Jan 5
11:39

2018

Manika Khanna

Manika Khanna

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Patients who have failed IVF are often extremely responsive to any intervention aimed to increase their fertility. After losing confidence in themselves and their doctors, the patients often seek better options, perhaps something new and different, for their next cycle in order to increase the probability of success.

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While the doctors may find it enticing to try and test new options of infertility treatment in Delhi to better the chances of success,Is Empirical Therapy in IVF good or bad? Articles they may not be able to test its efficiency and effectiveness. A new and different treatment, an experiment by the doctor, may not be the best.

Doctors, therefore, often prefer empirical therapy. Empirical therapy is nothing but a therapy based on experience. The efficacy of these therapies, owing to the expenses involved in it, has never been tested in controlled clinical trials.

Nevertheless, the absence of clinical trials would not necessarily mean that these treatments are ineffective and useless. Similarly, a pregnancy that follows an empirical therapy does not incontrovertibly imply that the pregnancy is a result of the said treatment, considering that it can be a mere coincidence.

While empirical therapy is more preferable, it is of utmost importance for the patients to aware of its limitations. There are several empirical therapies which are inexpensive and have no side effects, but they may not always help.

On the other hand, there are quite a lot of expensive and time consuming empirical theories, a few of which have hazardous side effects which can harm the health and immunity of the patients. Despite this, patients influenced by the success stories over the internet insist on empirical therapy, unaware of the fact that it is untested and unproven.

The cheaper and short-term empirical therapies generally include prescribing a course of antibiotics for patients whom you suspect to have endometritis and interventions like DHEA, Vitamin D and other supplements. These therapies do not have any side effects, but it may not necessarily have a successful outcome.

At the same time, the expensive empirical therapies are likely to have side effects  and include intravenous immunoglobulins, intralipid infusions and steroids.

In any case, it is of utmost importance for the doctor to inform the patients that the treatment used is not clinically tested and proved and the results of the same are not guaranteed or promised.

While the inexpensive and safe therapies like acupuncture and intraventions such as DHEA, Vitamin D and other supplements are some of the good options available to the patients, the expensive therapies involving intravenous immunoglobulins having hazardous side effects can have serious repercussions on the health and immunity of the patients.