ArkLaTex Fertility and Reproductive Medicine

He’s very smart and has an answer to everything. I can sense that he wants his patients to be very successful and he will do whatever he needs to do to try and get you pregnant. I love how I felt like someone finally understood exactly what I was going through. He’s never made me feel uncomfortable.

Go in with an open mind and understand that he’s going to be coming at you with all the science. Understand that when you first see him, he likes to move fast to try and figure out what’s going on. He doesn’t waste any time!

I was diagnosed with unexplained infertility and recurrent miscarriages and he wanted us to first start out with Clomid to try and produce better eggs. We got pregnant the first cycle but it ended in ectopic. We will be trying Clomid again in the future.

Bloodwork mostly was not covered. Several ultrasounds were covered through insurance. The initial doctors visit was around $400. HSG test was $660 cash price.

Dr. Vandermolen is extremely educated and knowledgable. He has some quirks that make him seem a little off socially but he is still very sweet. While some don't appreciate his humor at times I find it refreshing. He allows me to talk through scenarios to understand our course of action. He answers every question I have and is prepared as he knows I tend to ask a lot of questions.

Be open to accepting his quirkiness. It was the biggest thing I was worried about first, but it's now one of my favorite things about him. Research the process, ask questions, and be your own advocate as a patient

Supplements included prenatal, DHA, acai, baby aspirin, pycnogenol, melatonin, and ubiquinol. Supplements were for improving egg quality. I do not have an official DOR diagnosis but FSH was 9 and amh was lower but not extremely low. Husband is treated with clomid for low count, and antioxidants/vitamins for improving poor morphology (the reason we used ICSI). Clomid has significantly improved count but morphology remains low at 1.5% being the best we've seen on an analysis. We used a mid luteal lupron protocol. Birth control for 3 weeks followed by 5 units of Lupron, then Lupron continued with the addition of 225 iu Gonal-F and 2 vials of Menopur. Lupron and birth control were for suppression of ovulation. Gonal-f and menopur were for follicle stimulation. 7500 iu HCG trigger Novarel administered 36 hours before egg retrieval. 20 follicles seen growing ranging between 9mm to 20mm at time of trigger. 12 eggs were retrieved and all mature. All had ICSI performed and 8 were fertilized. Day 3 all 8 eggs were 7-8 cells and by day 3 only 3 blastocysts were left, one was expanding, one was a BB, and one was a CC. The 2 best blastocysts were transferred, and the CC was given an extra day to improve but arrested day 6. Our cycle was not successful and resulted in a negative pregnancy test.

Monitoring was typically done first thing in morning, as labs were needed to determine continued doses. The clinic knew I work in healthcare and needed early appointments and scheduled them consistently ahead of time around the same time early.

around 15,000 for IVF c ICSI and fresh transfer. Around 700 dollars for IUI

Since we only had 2 embryos with decent grading he was comfortable with transferring both since my risk factors are not significant.

Spends significant amount of time on each visit. Performs ultrasounds/procedures himself. Explains findings & plans thoroughly. He is educated about his profession. Bedside manner not overly loving/exciting but not bothersome for me. Sometimes mumbles/talks softly so frequently have to ask for repeat. Hasn't seemed interested in working with my naturopathic doctor's treatments that are to help achieve the same goals. Asks me to stop some of what she is wanting me to do. Not sure why yet. Hopefully this will get better.

Bring good records of medical history/labs/surgeries/meds and bring notebook to take down notes.

Provera x 2 due to low progesterone lab results, thick endometrium, abnormal bleeding, hormonal imbalance. Increased progesterone & decreased thickness of uterine lining. Saline sonohysterogram which found possible uterine polyp, ovarian/tube endometriomas, possible dilated blocked left fallopian tube. Able to check follicles on each ovary. Hysterosalpingogram found uterine polyps, partial blocked left fallopian tube with possible hydrosalpinx. Instructions & meds (antibiotic, ibuprofen, norco,valium) given prior to procedure. Due to the above findings & risk of miscarriage/failed implantation during planned IVF, he performed surgery. Added birth control 2 weeks prior to surgery. D&C- removed poyps. Laparoscopic surgery- cleaned up stage 4 endometriosis adhesions, separated kissing ovaries, removed left blocked fallopian tube, drained/removed hemorrhagic & chocolate cysts.

Insurance covered most thus far (ultrasounds, labs, meds, visits). Over $600 oop for HSG & over $100 copay oop for surgery thus far pending insurance.

At this point, he has just educated me that the option for transferring 1 or 2 embryos (if available) will be there when time comes for my IVF cycle. Have not gotten that far into treatment yet.

Dr. Vandermolen can be very candid yet kind. He knows that if a patient is seeing him, they have usually already gone through some type of heartbreak and are fragile. He is caring but he is also a realist. He will not sell you a false hope. He will tell you possible outcomes of the treatment that you are looking at and be ideal with you.

To trust him. He cares greatly for his patients, that is evident. He will give it to you straight, but with compassion and kindness. He is an ideal fertility doctor.

I saw Dr. Vandermolen for a myomectomy and an IUI. He was very straight forward with the myomectomy and was very clear on why we were removing them. The IUI, I saw his apprentice often and she was actually the one who inseminated me with his supervision. They were very clear about the amount of hormones I needed to take and why I had to take so much. The IUI was successful but it turned out to be another ectopic pregnancy.

The costs for treatment was expensive but they tried to be accomodating of what you needed and told you about many finance companies.

I have not done IVF yet but we are planning it.

I do feel that Dr. Vandermolen cares about mine and my husbands case. He talks very fast and very quietly when discussing serious issues. Sometimes its hard for me to even understand what he is saying due to the speed and tone! When he is not talking about something serious, he has a great sense of humor! I am not fully comfortable having a male doctor, as I am super modest to begin with. The procedures I have had with him he tries to make me comfortable and is as quick as he can with the uncomfortable parts.

Ask any questions you want! You may not see Dr. V again for a little while. The office is hard to get in touch with other than leaving a voicemail for them to return. His tone is serious and fast paced but I do feel that he genuinely cares for his patients.

I have PCOS and did not ovulate on clomid or femara when with my regular OBGYN. I have successfully ovulated EVERY cycle on femara with Dr. V! Though it has not resulted in pregnancy yet, I have been very encouraged with the protocols done. I had an HSG test recently, and no tubes were blocked. The next step since I am ovulating but not resulting in pregnancy is an IUI scheduled for next month.

The costs are average compared to what I have heard of around the US, possibly on the lower end!

He seems very knowledgeable in his practice, but a lot of visits I feel like just another chart. I also have to wait almost 2 hours for every visit, unless I’m the first appointment. In this case, I normally wait 30 mins.

Be ready to sit in the waiting room for hours, and don’t count on him being very sensitive to your feelings.

He started me on Femara, low dose. I did 3 cycles on it with no ovulation. Switched to Clomid, started low dose, as well. Did 4 cycles with two ovulations, but no pregnancy. At that point, he recommended we try IUI. My first IUI was on Clomid only. Second and third, Clomid and Follistim. I am currently doing my fourth IUI, with Clomid and a larger dose of Follistim.

My first appointment was covered by my insurance, as he diagnosed me with anovulation. He told us that’s how he would bill things for us. However, the first time my levels showed possible ovulation on meds, he started filing as unexplained infertility. From there on out, I’ve had to pay for all services. Ultrasounds- $220 each. Labs- $175. IUI- $375 each.

Dr. Vandermolen is completely honest and straightforward while still being kind and compassionate. From my very first appointment he has always made sure I understood what was going on and why. Dr. Vandermolen makes sure I know what my next move is and where we are in my treatment.

Relax

The first time I went to Dr. Vandermolen he suspected I had endometriosis. He felt that my best treatment plan would be to have surgery to remove the endometrial tissue. We proceeded with surgery and although I did not have endometriosis I did have a lot of scar tissue from a previous surgery and he found that both of my Fallopian tubes were partially closed. He cleaned up the scar tissue and opened up my Fallopian tubes. The next month I started taking femara. The third round of femara resulted in a positive pregnancy test and I had a single live birth at the end of 2016.

The first time around my insurance covered much of the cost and I only paid my copay. This time around I have different insurance and it doesn’t pay hardly anything. It has been a little on the expensive side but it’s going to be worth every penny.

I came to Dr. vandermolen thinking I would never get pregnant and I recently left 9 weeks pregnant. He did what I didn’t think would happen. There were several times I’d be frustrated with the fact that he seemed very unorganized and his facility out of date but in the end I have a healthy pregnancy.

Have patience. Sometimes his bedside manner isn’t the best. If you don’t understand something he says, ask him to explain. If you think you should be doing something and your not, speak up.

IUI protocols were basically give meds and monitor with blood tests and ultrasounds. Then trigger shot and procedure. IVF protocols you start with stimulation drugs for egg retrieval. This is also monitored by blood tests and ultrasounds. Then egg retrieval happens and depending on the number and quality of eggs he will determine to freeze them or do a fresh transfer. Fresh transfer occurs a few days later and frozen you have to wait 6-8 weeks for transfer.

I think the IUI were around 2,500 and IVF was quoted to us at 14,500 but ended up being more like 20,000

He does not like to transfer multiple embryos due to health risks. He said if I had trouble conceiving with single transfers we would move to placing two.

Dr. Vandermolen is honest, compassionate, and optimistic all in the same breath. He knew that we had lost a previous pregnancy due to an ectopic pregnancy, so our first course of action was to take out my fibriods. In the process of waiting for surgery, I became pregnant a second time with a tubal pregnancy and lost my last tube. It was devastating, but he was there with us the entire way.

Prior to your appointment or before your next one, always jot down any questions you have- simple or complex. He will take his time to answer each and every one-- no question is too small.

After experiencing the second tubal pregnancy, we took out the fibriods so that my body would be ready for IVF. Unfortunately, our military insurance does not cover IVF and so we are searching for assistance in paying for the process so that we may be able to experience the beauty of parenthood.

For the entire IVF process (labs, meds, freezing additional eggs, etc.) the cost would be $10,500.00

Dr. Vandermolen seems like a great physician. He did take good care of me, he performed my laparoscopy and diagnosed me with endometriosis. I am glad that he pushed me to have that performed before starting IUI. He may not be quite as aggressive as I would prefer, however. But my case was a difficult on because I was a poor responder to the fertility drugs and had poor egg quality.

To seek out support outside of the clinic ( counselor, social media, local support groups, etc) because infertility is so tough and that is not a topic that they really harp on (the emotional aspects.)

For all IVFs, I took 5-6 weeks of birth control and 10 days of Doxycycline before starting. My initial IVF, I was on the following ( I under-responded and we converted to an IUI): Leuprolide ( micro) 40 mcg, follistim, menopur. Start Lupron 10 units subcutaneous injection (in abdomen) once daily ( in the evening). Date AM dose PM dose Lupron Appt 03/31 NA 100 F / 2 M 5 units 04/01 NA 100 F / 2 M 5 units 04/02 NA Need appt this day for E2 LH and P4 04/03-04/10 100 F/ 2 M 5 Lupron 04/11 Tentative retrieval 2nd IVF: I was a poor responder, with 7 eggs retrieved. The RE transferred 3 embryos, but negative pregnancy test. I started microdose Lupron 20 units subcutaneous injection twice daily. I started gonadotropins (Follistim) subcutaneous injections Doses are as follows: Date AM dose PM dose Appt 6/24 225 F 225 F 6/25 225 F 225 F 6/26- 225 F 225 F until 7/05 retrieval For my final IVF, I had 3 embryos transferred and was negative test again. I did have 12 eggs retrieved, however, the quality was not great and I had none to freeze. I took Ganirelex 250 mcg SQ daily for 3 days, then started 200 Follistim / 2 Menopur, then twice daily 150 F / 1 M for 9 days until retrieval.

I never had a problem with scheduling these; and did not have to wait too long in the waiting room.

My surgery ( laparoscopy) was about $8,000 with insurance. IUIs were about $500. IVF: all in cost about $8,000 for services. Cost of fertility drugs were $,4,392, $6,691.97, and about $5,000 for last round.

For my final rounds of IVF, the RE was very helpful in judging/recommending how many embryos to transfer based in the quality. In my case, I had poorer quality so he elected multiple embryo transfer.

Dr. Vandermolen was kind, but a little bit difficult to understand sometimes. He talks very fast and uses lots of big words. When I would ask him what something meant, he would explain it in almost too much detail. I appreciated that he took plenty of time with me; I never felt rushed in or out of his office. However, we would wait 2-3 hours for a consultation. This was very frustrating, but I would remind myself (and my husband) that he takes plenty of time with us, and we want the same for other couples. I wish there was a better way to schedule for consults. Waiting for regular monitoring appointments during IUI or IVF cycles weren't so bad...maybe 45 minutes at the most? I know of several couples who had great success with Dr. V, but we just didn't. The main thing that was NOT explained to me was the egg retrieval, embryo development process. I had 17 eggs retrieved. Since we are unexplained, he said they would do ICSI on half and let the other half fertilize naturally. Of the half that were supposed to fertilize naturally, NONE of them fertilized at ALL. I wish I would have been given the option to ICSI all eggs, and I'm not sure why I wasn't? I know that he didn't want to end up with 17 embryos, but I would have liked to discuss that more. So, we ICSI'd 9...of the 9, 5 fertilized, and only 3 made it to day 3. All 3 were very weak embryos. So weak that he transferred all 3. When we got there on transfer day and he told us how weak our embryos were, my husband even asked, "is there any point in transferring if they are so weak?" to which Dr. V said "yes, we should definitely transfer...you never know what could happen once these embryos are in the womb". Fast forward, our transfer failed and we didn't have anything left to freeze. $18k down the drain. I haven't been back to see Dr. V since the consultation after the failed IVF. Bottom line...he did explain some things well, but there were other, crucial things that were not explained. If I would have had a positive pregnancy test and healthy baby as a result of that IVF, I would have been so grateful, but I would have also sighed in relief that we had a baby despite the lack of information about the most crucial part of the IVF cycle.

Do your own research. Ask WHY he's recommending something. Ask if there are other options. If you're doing IVF, ask to ICSI ALL mature eggs! Be prepared to wait a LONG time when you go for your consultation.

Oh wow...I did 3 IUIs and 1 IVF cycle. When we first met with him, he said we could skip the IUIs and go straight to IVF if we wanted to (I had done several rounds of clomid and an IUI with my OBGYN). Due to the costs, we decided to try the IUIs first. It's been a few years, so I don't remember the exact protocol of my first IUI?? I think it was clomid only, but possibly Menopur? I know that the second IUI with him, we used Menopur (1 vial per day for 8-9 days) and I'm pretty sure Novarel for trigger. The third IUI was LOTS of Menopur and Novarel for trigger. I was on 1 vial a day, then increased to 2 per day at the end. My IVF meds were Menopur, Follistim, Ganirelix, and Lupron for trigger. I was on 2-3 vials of Menopur per day, maybe 100 of Follistim, and I only took Ganirelix like twice. My memory is TERRIBLE!! I feel like this part isn't helping at all! Sorry!

I don't remember individual costs exactly, but I want to say that the doctor portion of my IVF was around $11-12k.

Being our first IVF doctor and recommended by our dear friend that is my OB, I assumed we would be treated like IVF patients. We didn't really know what to expect under their care but overall it was not pleasent. I can say that because I had to extremely different experiences. The appointment right before my retreival, I was told by the doctor that, "next time, we will change up your medicine...". That left me feeling like the whole process had already failed. I also wasn't allowed to do any monitoring at my local OBGYN and had to drive almost everyday an hour and a half away for 5 minute labs or 15 minute ultra sound. Sometimes waiting hours.

To really look at all your options for care. This is a very expensive process. You want to feel most comfortable and less stressed during a stressful time. You don't just let anyone cut or color your hair or keep your child. We do more research on what TV we are going to buy.

They wouldn't allow monitoring locally where we live even though they can do same day results on the tests/results they needed. We had to go to there facility and most appointments were first thing in the morning towards the end when you go everyday. Otherwise they are just when you can get in.

I think Dr. Vandermolen is probably very smart but somewhat of a poor communicator. He also follows a standard protocol for first time patients and only adjusts after a failed cycle. I think he might be a better doctor than I think but I didn't see it.

Go somewhere else.

I only remember being put on birth control pills which caused a follicle that had to be aspirated before starting stimulation meds. This had never happened on any of my other cycles with another doctor.

Roughly $12,000

Dr. Vandermolen seems very knowledgable and was willing to listen to us. He does go off on tangents often, telling stories and whatnot, which, when you’re very anxious about your treatment, is not a great thing as I just wanted to get to the point. But overall very good experience.

Do some research before hand and be prepared to ask some specific questions about your circumstance.

The cost was reasonable, slightly less than what the internet indicated

He will transfer up to 2 embryos, mostly at the preference of the patient. He prefers 1 due to risk with multiples but was very open to transferring 2 if the patient wanted.

I felt he was very genuine and addressed any and all of our concerns. Even called to follow up with us on a medication change for my husband. He went over possible outcomes for a pregnancy for us this late in life. He also encouraged us to make the right decisions for us as far as future treatments. He didn’t pressure us for additional tests that’s were not necessary but we knew all the options.

Listen carefully take notes it’s a lot of info!

Dr. Vandermole not is an amazing doctor! He is very informative, listens and addresses all problems/concerns/questions,

Do go in with an open mind. If you are just staring your fertility journey, please listen and take his advice to heart. He will be up front and honest with any questions or concerns that you may have. Do not ever think twice about calling to ask a question, everyone is super nice and helpful. They would rather you ask than to not ask.

Dr V has always described every plan of action in great detail. He is confident and really knows what he is doing. Everything that he has said to expect has happened. I feel very confident in his care and his treatment options. I have full trust in him.

He's very to the point.

My egg quality is slightly poor so we did 3 months of Clomid. The first month resulted in a chemical pregnancy. After 3 failed months, we are moving on to IUI with femera.

Stated your chance percentages all the time in an "it is what it is" way. If you get a positive great, if not oh well sorry. He answered my questions but I didn't feel reassured when he answered. I don't know how to explain it. I just didn't feel confident about him. I guess like he had an I've seen and heard it all attitude.

Don't be in your feelings. Be ready for his lack of bedside manner. He'll give it to you straight but with very little compassion or empathy.

It's way too much to remember. Lots of shots and supplements.

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He is super caring and thorough! He always makes sure that you receive great care! As a patient with PCOS I was hesitant at first because I felt like there was no hope for me. I mean I’m only 27 and I’m dealing with infertility.

He is great! Definitely go to him.

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Consultation visit-$75 End of the visit-$450. Additional treatments-$600-up

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