Alta Bates (closed)

I came to Dr Chetkowski after 3 failed FETs from a clinic that felt like an IVF mill. I was broken and felt at a loss. My previous Dr didn’t have the time or understanding to know why my previous 3 FETs had failed. I decided on Dr Chetkowski because of his wisdom, research and ability to take the time to personalize my treatment. Dr Chetkowski also helped my mother 23 years ago achieve pregnancy for my younger brother, when others could not help her. This history with his vast knowledge was why we changed clinics.

Ask every question you can think of. He will answer it and give you a full explanation without making you feel rushed. Also find street parking, it’s much cheaper than the garage!

His first treatment was an ERA cycle and NK Cell testing, something my previous clinic would not do. From this he decided to put me on lupron injections for almost 5 months (my ERA showed inflammation) and Intralipid Infusions (I had high Natural Killer Cells) every 3 weeks before and after transfer. Also, another difference is that he prescribed progesterone compound capsules and PIO. He also had me on a different amount of estrogen both patches and pills.

He was not in network for my insurance but their office worked with us and even though we did pay out of pocket they sent off the receipts to insurance to speed up the process for us to receive a payback sooner. Each visit out of pocket $400 Transfer $3,000 ERA $700

He was open to both 1 and 2 embryo transfers for me personally because of my previous failures.

From the start, and although a challenging case, Dr. Herndon was always hopeful for my husband and I, and made me feel hopeful for myself. Dr. Herndon is compassionate, meticulous, and extremely knowledgeable. I am so grateful that my OBGYN referred me to him. From my initial consult with him, it was obvious to me that Dr. Herndon was the right choice. His approach is unique and welcomed. He starts with education, then treatment planning (based on you, your conditions, etc. and couples it with data driven/research for an optimal outcome), treatment execution, treatment review and optimization, all the while providing close communication throughout the entire process. There is a lot more to fertility than what we learn about in our college biology class. Because treating fertility has so many variables, I liked that Dr. Herndon explained the physiology of conception; it provided the critical foundation which ensured I understood the treatment options, risks, benefits, and treatment milestones. He set expectations and continued to reset them as we progressed from one stage in the treatment to the next. This was so important for my husband and I in this journey. Dr. Herndon is a partner in the process every step of the way. I am currently halfway through my treatment. I had two retrievals for IVF, but am delaying my transfer to optimize my weight for a healthy pregnancy. I also had an abdominal myomectomy performed to remove multiple fibroids and normalize my uterus prior to the transfer. Dr. Herndon was so vested that he assisted my OBGYN in the surgery. I am forever grateful for Dr. Herndon for his medical expertise, surgical precision, and kindness. He has a sense of urgency and has been extremely responsive. He makes himself available 24/7, regardless of holidays or weekends, and is always the the one to deliver progress updates. I found this extremely comforting especially with the emotionally charged wait time after egg retrieval; evaluation for maturity, fertilization, blastocyst development, and genetic testing. Dr. Herndon has been there for me and my husband and has been truly happy for our successes and saddened by our setbacks. He is so well versed in fertility (just look at his resume) and has a genuine concern for his patients and their success. Dr. Herndon had to relocate and unfortunately will not be able to see my treatment through to the transfer and early pregnancy, but he took amazing care to transition my case to his colleague. My new doctor was thoroughly debriefed for a seamless transfer. Dr. Herndon is an extraordinary doctor and I will miss him.

Bring a pen and paper to your consult to take notes. Dr. Herndon shares a lot of information and it is helpful to write it down. Bring questions and concerns. Dr. Herndon is very good at putting his patients at ease.

I appreciated that Dr. Herndon explained the benefits and risks associated with eSET vs multiple embryo transfer. He provided research statistics to back up the information and also reviewed the impact of genetic testing. Dr. Herndon provides the information, makes recommendations based on your goals, but ultimately leaves the decision to the patient without any pressure.

Dr. Herndon is a perfectionist. I was impressed by how carefully he considered every step of my treatment. I had some ambiguous test results and he made the right call about how to proceed every time. I also recall one weekend when he spent a lot of time considering exactly what time I should take a trigger shot for egg retrieval mulling over my blood tests. Again he made exactly the right call about that. He clearly works very long hours, evenings, & weekends in order to make optimal decisions for his patients struggling through the emotional and extremely expensive process of infertility treatment.

Ask Dr. Herndon questions about strategy, options, anatomy, the science of IVF, etc. Talk to the nurses about steps in the process, getting clarification. The nurses (especially Wendy) were super great for reassurance and emotional support.

With my first pregnancy we started with less invasive (and less expensive) procedures and they worked right away (first IUI). My second pregnancy was much harder to achieve, I was older (37) and still had the anovulation/PCOS-type disorder but age had likely become a bit of factor. The strategy was to try with IUIs since that worked the first time, but eventually it became clear that IVF would give me a much better chance of pregnancy sooner. Given age, we did genetic testing of the embryos to avoid the anguish of another miscarriage (I had one from an IUI rounds). Dr. Herndon was cautious always about doing anything unnecessarily invasive. We did a transfer of a single embryo to avoid pregnancy with multiples which is more risky. I appreciated his caution.

altogether for medication, egg retrieval, embryo transfer it was somewhere around $20,000 I think with extra costs for PGS and ICSI maybe adding another $4000-5000(?). IUI rounds (I did 5 before achieving my second pregnancy) were somewhere around $1000 each or maybe less, but some of that was partly covered by my insurance.

I strongly prefer caution. I was in agreement with Dr. Herndon's approach and was glad that he preferred single embryo transfer for my case. My understanding is that for health-related reasons single embryo transfers are preferable and that the rates of success (particularly for women with my particular set of issues and given that we did genetic screening on the embryos and transferred 5-day embryos) certainly warrant this caution.

Dr. Herndon was a breath of fresh air after a terrible experience at another clinic. I was impressed with his candid manner and attention to detail right from our first meeting, and appreciated the time he took to discuss my care plan, before and during treatment. Things started out well as we went through just one embryo retrieval which yielded several normal embryos. He was an expert at knowing how to manage the medications leading up the to retrieval. Our embryos were genetically tested, so we planned for frozen transfers. The difficulties began with the transfers, when one after the other failed. After each cycle, Dr. Herndon always took the time to regroup with me and as time went on and there were no answers we would brainstorm together on what to do next. After 3 failed cycles, we ending up doing the endometrial receptivity test. The results were nebulous for varied reasons, which led me to repeat the test several times. This was no picnic and I think Dr. Herndon may have had his doubts about what the test could actually tell us, but he was supportive of me taking it as far as I felt I needed to. In the end, based on the ERA results we adjusted the timing of my 4th embryo transfer, and I am happy to say that I'm now 30 weeks pregnant! It was a long and difficult road that I don't think I could have traveled down without Dr. Herndon's care.

around 20K for one cycle including retrieval, genetic testing, frozen embryo transfer with medications

We opted for eSET and Dr. Herndon was very supportive of this, despite my age, given our embryos were genetically tested.

I'm not sure what I can add to my "I was treated like a person" answer. I guess I would add that we went straight to IVF with ICSI due to MFI (low count, low motility, poor morphology). That was an easy decision that Dr. Herndon unequivocally recommended if we wanted to have our own children. We did PGS on all the embryos and froze the six that tested well. A few months later we transferred one, but it did not take. Then we dithered about whether to do another retrieval ('cause my eggs are gettin old, and we have the MFI) before another transfer. The dithering went on for a few months, but Dr. Herndon and Wendi patiently counseled us every step of the way. We were gearing up to do another transfer - with some additional measures added to help obviate the difficulties that we'd encountered with the first one - when I found out we had spontaneously conceived. Dr. Herndon monitored my early pregnancy- ordering my blood tests, doing ultrasounds to confirm implantation & heartbeat (most OB-GYNs won't see you until 8 weeks, I think?). So there were a lot of unexpected twists and turns in our fertility journey, but throughout we were treated in a straightforward, compassionate way.

Know in advance that caring and compassion come in different forms. Some doctors show it through more overt hand-holding, others through a warm bedside manner - and this may be what you want (no shame in your game). But quality time, prompt information-sharing, and deep expertise were what I wanted- and what I got- here.

IVF with ICSI (due to MFI- my labs were all ok) a month or two later, FET of one euploid embryo negative pregnancy test month after that... spontaneous pregnancy (they'd estimated that we had a less than 1/100 chance of conceiving naturally, which is why we went ahead with IVF. so we were pretty shocked).

I never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a monitoring appointment- no cattle line here. All monitoring appointments were scheduled for bw 8:30 and 10 in the morning so I was usually able to commute to the city and work a half-day after. It pretty much ran my life for those 2-3 weeks of stimulation/retrieval/transfer, but there wasn't really another way.

I'd rather not say.

He recommended eSET. We asked why- more out of curiosity than out of a desire to transfer multiple embryos. He explained that there are more risks of complications or prematurity with multiple embryo transfer, and that current medical/ethical guidelines suggest that someone at my age without a history of miscarriage etc would only try out one embryo at a time. Again, that was in accordance w our wishes so we didn't press the issue.

Dr. Chetkowski very clearly explained each procedure before hand, and all potential risks. We decided as a team what was best for our next step, and how to acheive it. We have done three IUI's with him, and each one, made new adjustments according to our changing situation. We trust him, and feel comfortable asking for advice and his opinion on what step we should take next. We had a pleasant and great experience working with Dr.C and his staff.

One piece of advice would be to ask him to talk slowly if you have trouble understanding him, as he has an accent. He is always happy to repeat himself.

Our treatment strategry was to focus on our initial diagnosis of male factor infertility, and go from there. We started with an unmedicated IUI cycle, which unfortunately ended with a negative pregnancy test. Our second and third cycle, my wife was on Clomid, and took a trigger shot to ensure ovulation. Again, we unfortunately found no success with any of our IUI's, but understood that there was no guarantee and understood the risks. Ultimately, Invitro will be our best bet to try for our circumstances. Dr.Chetkowski was very supportive of letting us try what we felt was right, combined with his medical advisement.

IUI's cost around $300.00, and the sperm washing around $150. Ultrasound check-ups were around $250.00 each.

Dr. Chetkowski was an excellent doctor! He always had time to sit down and explain every procedure and next step we took. I never felt uninformed or uncomfortable around him. He had a great bedside manner and was very quick, but still gentle. He understood my husbands and I situation very well and was concerned with all aspects of our life. He was supportive of our decisions, and listened well to the concerns we had. Although our procedures didn't end in pregnancy, I had a very positive and hopeful experience with him!

Don't be afraid to ask questions! He will listen and explain any concerns that you may have.

We came to Dr. Chetkowski aware that we had male factor infertility, and were looking into IUI. After getting to know each other, we decided as a team that an IUI would be the right choice for us. For our first IUI, I was prescribed 25 mg of clomaphine, and was to do at home ovulation testing until I received a positive to go in for the procedure. I also had a couple ultrasounds leading up to ovulation to make sure I was on the right track. Unfortunately our first IUI ended in a negative pregnancy test, but we were eager to try again for a second time. Our next IUI, was much like the first, but I was on 50 mg of Clomid and didn't go in for the procedure until a positive at home ovulation test. Unfortunately that one wasn't successful either. Our third IUI, a few months later, I was on 50 mg of Clomid and took a tigger shot before our procedure to ensure ovulation. This third IUI resulted in a negative pregnancy test as well. All three of these procedures we used my husbands sperm and each time his average after washing was about 2-3 million. We were saddened that none of the IUI's were successful for us, but hopeful we still have more options. We are now looking into IVF.

We paid out of pocket for our IUI's which was around $300 for the procedure, and $200 for sperm washing. I also paid $100 for the trigger shot and $10 for Clomid.

Dr. Chetkowski is a great doctor; I am glad I did my freezing with him. Positives: He has been doing this for decades so really understands what he is doing and how to course correct to make things work. He is through and makes sure that he does what is best for you and your body, not what would be fastest/ make the most money for the clinic. For example, right before I was going to start treatment, I became ill for an unrelated reason and he insisted that we not move ahead with the treatment so that I could get the other issue addressed. Weaknesses: Dr Chetkowski is not an overly emotive person. I am OK with that, as I value my doctors expertise over all other things but if you need a "warm and fuzzy" doctor, he may not be the right person for you. For example, it took a while for my follicles to develop and he called them "sluggish." I remember thinking if were more sensitive, this might have been hurtful but I realized that he was just telling the truth about my follicles!

Make sure that his tone works for you (and your partner if applicable). If you need an emotive doctor, he may not be a good fit for you.

I had egg freezing with Dr. Chetkowski. I took both pills and injections to get my eggs mature and then had them retrieved at Pacific Fertility Center in SF. I initially was on lower doses of the drugs but after it was clear my follicles were not responding quickly, I was increased to max dosage for about 7 days of my treatment. Dr. Chetkowski and his staff were very throughout about tracking my follicle growth progress.

I had about $700 of drug payments to make out of pocket; the rest of the drugs and procedures was covered by my insurance

Dr. Herndon provided high quality, direct care. First, he found a condition (uterine septum) that other doctors had not found despite doing the same tests. He answered every question and provided all the current evidence to our situation. When my partner had to start a heart medication that could affect fertility, he did reviewed the scientific evidence throughly to understand the best way forward for us. As a surgeon, I trust him completely. He did an amazing job with my procedures. He is a smart, competent, fastidious doctor. Sometimes he spoke quickly or technically, but he would always clarify as best he could if asked.

Trust your relationship with him, and make sure to ask all your questions until you have a full understanding.

Surgery to rule out a bicornuate uterus and resect a uterine septum. Egg retrieval, 12 healthy eggs. ICSI procedure which produced 8 day 5 embryos. Successful egg transfer with 1 previously frozen embryo. Monitoring a subchorionic hematoma in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy.

Due to my fertility and age, Dr. Herndon strongly recommended transferring one embryo. Based on my fertility and the health of the embryos, he believed transferring more than one would lead to multiples.

I was referred to Dr. Herndon after three miscarriages within 2 years. I had just turned 40 after the third miscarriage. I was advised by my ob-gyn to see Dr. Herndon and not to further attempt getting pregnant on our own, as our third miscarriage was genetically tested and had life limiting trisomy. Prior to our first meeting, Dr. Herndon thoroughly reviewed my chart from my ob-gyn. While I was encouraged to share my experiences with him, I found it very encouraging that he understood my background before my visit. During that first visit, we talked in detail about egg quality as it related to my age and previous miscarriages. We discussed the pros and cons of all possible treatment options during that first visit. We discussed IUI, IVF, ICSI vs. non-ICSI, using PGS. My fiancé and I appreciated that Dr. Herndon was very realistic with us. He was very knowledgable with the most recent research related to IVF and its statistics and he openly shared all of that information. He shared the statistics and odds of conceiving in a very candid yet caring manner. We both walked away feeling realistic yet hopeful. My fiancé and I decided to proceed with IVF and we also decided to do PGS because of our previous losses. Dr. Herndon thoroughly explained the protocol he was prescribing and all the steps in the process. Prior to our retrieval cycles, Dr. Hendon recommended and performed a hysteroscopy to assess my uterine lining after the D&C's from my miscarriages. Fortunately, he took this extra step because he was able to accurately diagnose Asherman's Syndrome. This diagnosis ended up being very important as I progressed through my IVF treatment. We ended up going through two retrieval cycles and had 3 - 5 day embryos to send for PGS. After the PGS testing, we ended up with one embryo that was viable for a frozen transfer. Knowing that we only had one attempt for this embryo to implant, Dr. Herndon discussed scenarios that would ensure optimal transfer. We ended up canceling two transfers, as my lining was not responding as we had hoped. While this was a little disappointing at the time, I am eternally grateful that Dr. Herndon recognized that we should wait for more optimal conditions. He made adjustments to my protocol leading up to the frozen transfer and we were able to achieve the best possible uterine thickness considering my Asherman's diagnosis. Fortunately, our transfer was a success and we received our first positive pregnancy result 10 days later. Dr. Herndon's care did not end with a positive pregnancy test. He monitored our pregnancy very closely the first few months. Unfortunately, I had periodic spotting throughout my first trimester and Dr. Herndon and his team were very attentive to our pregnancy during the stress of continued spotting. I had a very scary spotting episode a couple of weeks into the pregnancy. The episode happened to take place on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. It was very comforting to call the on-call number on that Sunday afternoon and have them offer to see me on the holiday rather than waiting until after the holiday. This is just one example of the care and concern from Dr. Herndon and everyone at his office. Both my fiancé and I are very happy with Dr. Herndon's professionalism, expertise, candor, responsiveness and heartfelt approach during our treatment. We had the best possible outcome and had a little girl born In January 2016. Regardless of the outcome of our experience, I would, and have, recommended Dr. Herndon to others seeking fertility treatment.

I would advise someone not to hold back on any questions with Dr. Henrndon - even if it is during a treatment cycle. He is open to hearing all feedback during any phase of treatment.

I answered this in the previous section

Dr. Herndon is relatively young doctor who had recently joined Alta Bates Fertility when I was under his care. I was 41 years old at the time and was advised by Dr. Herndon that I did not need to undergo IVF and that an IUI with clomid or injectables would suffice. He never once discussed the possibility of my eggs being of poor quality; only that my AFC was good and FSH within a satisfactory range. My AMH was never measured. I underwent a total of 6 IUIs (4 with clomid/femara and 2 with injectables). I did not conceive during these 6 cycles. I did conceive spontaneously between cycles on 3 separate occasions. The first ended at 9 weeks and subsequent testing revealed trisomy 21. The other two pregancies ended at 8 and 10 weeks respectively. While Dr Herndon was attentive and kind, I did not feel he was committed to finding the right treatment for me and was negligent in continuing to advise IUI. Had I been told that 85-90% of my eggs were abnormal, I would have pursued an entirely different course of treatment. With another few years of experience, I believe Dr Herndon will be a fine doctor but something tells me his heart is not in it.

Ask to speak with current or former patients!

Dr. Herndon is smart and comprehensive. He seemed up to date on the latest research. He spent a great deal of time with us talking through our situation in detail. He can move quickly and, which certainly friendly, does not have the gentlest manner. He was never short or rude, but he is not uniformly warm.

Don't be intimidated by his intelligence and come prepared to explore all the options and ask lots of questions.

This was my first IVF cycle, so we did a standard antagonist protocol. I ended up with one PGS-normal embryo (from 20 eggs retrieved).

$20,000 for one retrieval and transfer; $2000 for PGS; $10,000 for medications

The first time around he really took the time to talk to my husband and I about what was going on step by step. We felt he was truest concerned with my prefect and did everything possible to make it successful before he turned me over to my obgyn. 2nd time I felt every time I saw him he was ore occupied with something. Yes we were much older and the chances were slim but he didn't seem to care, and advise on other ways. Different hormones etc.

See how busy he is. See if he was taking on to much. We triply loved him first time around. Also don't be afraid to ask fir things you read about. I think he would take the time to talk to you.

Insurance picked up most. Out of pocket maybe $350

I felt very much like I was just a faceless patient, a science experiment if nothing else, something to be successful at. My personal or individual needs were not attended to at all. He was very cold and mathematical in approach.

Don't expect warmth.

IUIs with letrozole.

I can't remember, I think about $600 per IUI.

I don't know.

Dr. Herndon was honest but kind. He was always willing to answer questions and to offer clear options. While I did not end up getting pregnant, I trusted that he was doing everything he could and that he had my best interests in mind.

He offered me the option and because I was a single mother he followed my preference for single embryo transfer, but recommended genetic testing to make sure that I wasn't wasting money and time.

Very conservative about outcomes, which I think is good. He is forthright, which is good. Is conscientious and returns messages. Sometimes he almost explains things too much. Other times I'm not sure what question to ask, but I can research on my own time because he provides enough information to do so.

Over $19,000 for one IVF cycle, minus genetic testing (another ~$3000) and medication (another ~$6500)

Found him to be cold at the initial intake, but he seemed to warm up at subsequent appointments. I also found that his team did not take enough time to explain the process clearly. I wouldn't say don't go to him, as he has a good track record, but definitely be prepared to advocate for yourself, for as much information and alignment on the process.

Advocate for yourself.

I spent out of pocket about $4000 because much of my costs were covered by insurance.