A Melbourne man accused of posing as a gynaecologist and IVF expert may have been giving his patients unkown animal products as a treatment for infertility.
As health authorities proceeded with their case against Raffaele Di Paolo in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday, a website detailing his services revealed he was offering patients "organotherapy" – a treatment he described as "an emerging branch of homeopathy that uses remedies made from the tissues of healthy animals to treat human health problems and toxin damage".
The website, upon which Mr Di Paolo claims to have treated hundreds of women struggling with infertility, including some who got pregnant in their 40s, says: "Organotherapy treatment tissue is derived from medical animals, maintained and cared for in a controlled environment. Tissue will be processed before used for human treatment."
Mr Di Paolo, whose business Artemedica Pty Ltd was registered in 2004, is accused of presenting himself as a gynaecologist or obstetrician who had performed fertility medicine at Melbourne IVF, a reputable clinic that says he has never worked there.
Charge sheets tendered to court also allege Mr Di Paolo used the initials "M.D." and claimed to have done research at Monash University.
A prosecutor for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, Jordina Rust, told the court on Monday that more charges would likely be added to the eight already filed against Mr Di Paolo because other potential complainants had raised allegations against him.
"In the last couple of weeks other individuals have come forward with allegations of a similar nature," Ms Rust said.
Earlier this month, a woman told Fairfax Media that Mr Di Paolo had been operating for more than a decade in some of Melbourne's wealthiest suburbs.
The woman, who did not want to be named, said she had spent more than $30,000 on services delivered by him in two clinics – one in Bay Street, Brighton, and another on St Kilda Road in Melbourne.
Over several years, she said he took blood samples from her arm and then injected it back into her, and that he once used a "massive" needle to inject what he said was her partner's sperm into her abdomen.
He also allegedly conducted ultrasound scans of her ovaries, recommended precise times to have sex, and prescribed various homeopathic remedies.
The woman said he did mention pigs at one stage, but she could not remember any further details.
"I feel sick to the core to think that he may have injected me with an animal's blood… as I had injections in my stomach weekly," she said.
"He also took blood out of my arm and mixed it with other stuff and injected it into my stomach."
Mr Di Paolo's lawyer asked for the case to be adjourned so prosecutors could determine whether new charges were to be laid. Mr Di Paolo is due to return to court on June 3.
On his website, Mr Di Paolo says his key interest is "women over the age of 38 with serious fertility problems", and women those who have had recurrent IVF failures and miscarriages and those who no longer qualify for IVF programs.
A spokeswoman for the Medical Board of Australia and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency said: "Anyone concerned about Mr Di Paolo or who has information about the services or care he has provided, should contact AHPRA on 1300 419 495 or the Victorian Health Services Commissioner (on 1300 582 113)."
