Assisted Fertility Program

Dr. Shaykh was very knowledgeable and explained each step of the procedure accurately and with great detail (I am a biologist so that's what I wanted). But I also expect he would be great at just giving a basic understanding of what to expect for those who aren't interested in the nitty-gritty details. He did not appear to have a lot of the biases that I have seen in other fertility doctors -- I am gay and obese and neither of these facts were issues to him. Other doctors have refused to treat me for my weight, but Dr. Shaykh didn't even mention it. And he was always good about including my wife in my care. He is so warm and inviting and made me feel well-cared-for. Everyone who I ran into in the office I saw being treated with the same care. There are photos in his office of the huge reunions for the children and families he's helped over the years, and I think that really speaks to how much of an impact he's had on those he treats.

Be prepared for expense -- not just from the cost of treatment. Obviously fertility treatments are expensive. But if you're planning to do IVF through the Roanoke office you also need to pay to fly to Jacksonville and stay there for at least a few days because the Roanoke office isn't equipped for surgery. I still think it's worth seeing him over the other doctors in the Roanoke area, but just be aware that that will add to the budget.

We decided to begin with IUI. I had wanted to do an unmedicated cycle but Dr. Shaykh recommended we go straight to medicated. First and second cycle -- Clomid for first five days of cycle, ultrasounds every two days starting around day 7, when egg reached maturity, at-home HCG trigger shot (10,000), then insemination 24 hours later. Third cycle -- same procedure but with letrozol. All have resulted in negative pregnancy tests. If you miss your period, you call the office, and he will order a blood a few days after your period is supposed to start. On my third cycle my period was late, but arrived before they ran a blood test.

Dr. Shaykh treated us with respect throughout the process. He wasn't sure about a few of the legal questions we had, but that wasn't really his wheelhouse. Other than that, he never treated us poorly because of our same-sex status and was very kind and understanding about our frustrations with not being able to use insurance since we weren't straight.

For three rounds of IUI, we paid about $7,000. Each appointment with Dr. Shaykh is $300. The HSG test was required and cost about $1,300 with insurance coverage. If we hadn't had insurance cover part of it, it would have been about four hundred dollars. The first ultrasound of each cycle costs $250 and the subsequent ultrasounds (to monitor egg size) are $200 each. Clomid and letrozol were covered by my insurance but the HCG trigger shot was not. The office can provide the trigger shot for $100, which ended up being way cheaper than any pharmacy in the area. The cost of the IUI procedure itself is $300. Sperm runs around $900 each cycle for one vial of washed sample, ordered through an outside sperm bank. The clinic can wash sperm for $100, which is the same as what the sperm bank charged. All in all, each cycle cost about $1,700 with an upstart cost for pre-treatment testing of about $1,600.

We used donor sperm from a bank. There isn't a storage facility in the Roanoke office, so we had to order a new sample separately each month. This probably added $300 in shipping to each cycle as opposed to buying several vials at once, but we were likely to go this route anyways in the hopes that we wouldn't need very many cycles. The sperm also cannot be delivered to the office since there isn't someone there full-time, so you have to get it delivered to your home address. This requires a little bit of extra work when ordering the sperm for the first time -- you need to submit a form signed by Dr. Shaykh that he's overseeing your care (this isn't true for all sperm banks, but most will require something like this). The turnaround time for that paperwork was about 24 hours with the Jacksonville office, which was very reasonable. It just means you need to be prepared before you get the go-ahead to order sperm about two days in advance of your ovulation.

Dr. Shaykh is not like the other two IVF practices I have encountered that want to start treatment before looking for all possible fertility roadblocks. Dr. Shaykh will perform diagnostic test to rule out any uterine and/or male fertility issues before beginning treatment.

The advice I would give a prospective patient of Dr. Shaykh would be to keep your appointments and follow your treatment calendar to the letter. Many of my friends IVF cycles have failed or we're cancelled because they ignored the doctor's orders. Dr. Shaykh and the nurses take a lot of time planning these cycles and it's just a waste of money and time to ignore the instructions.

I had my tubes tied during my previous marriage. I met my husband and we decided to have a baby as he doesn't have any kids. Dr. Shaykh and I decided on IVF due to my age (38 at the time). I was on birth control pills for a month and then took Gonal F mixed with Menopur intramuscularly for 11 days while having my eggs monitored for maturity. On the 13th day I took my trigger shot of Pregnyl and that Friday was the egg retrieval. 11 eggs were retrieved, 9 were mature, 9 fertilized. We got three embryos for the fresh transfer and one was frozen. From the fresh transfer, one embryo implanted and resulted in a pregnancy with a healthy baby that ended at 21 weeks due to preterm labor and an incompetent cervix. Dr. Shaykh and his staff were extremely compassionate and assisted with planning the frozen embryo transfer once my husband and I decided we were ready. Three months after our loss, we decided to try again with the frozen embryo. Dr. Shaykh started me on birth control pills and lupron injections. Once I got my period, my lining was checked and my transfer was completed two weeks later. I found out that I was pregnant 5 days after my frozen transfer and scheduled an appointment with an obstetrician. After obtaining a referral from my obstetrician to get a cerclage from a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist and bed rest, I have my beautiful baby girl.

I don't remember the cost but we paid for the full cycle which was $6500, $750 for embryo freezing, around $4000 for medication and $2500 for the frozen transfer.

Dr. Shaykh is really good about following the guidelines for number of embryos transfer according to patient age. He doesn't believe in transferring more embryos than it would take to have a awesome chance at pregnancy.

Dr. Shaykh was very thorough and very hopeful that we were making the correct treatment scenario. He was very polite and extremely understanding and only wanted the best for us. He was careful to remind of us the many risk and also assured us that the surgery may not be successful. We went out on a leap of faith anyways. He was definitely one of the most affordable Doctors considering the area I come from. He made sure I was very comfortable before and after surgery. I’ve never been anything but completely pleased with his work.

My advice would be to go on with the IVF although it’s a bit pricier the odds are higher in my opinion.

I only had a tubal reversal, I did do three cycles of Clomid with no success at this time.

$6,000 for reversal surgery

I’ve never made it thus far

My favorite part was the staff. The ivf nurses became very closely involved and always seemed to care. The technology they use is great too. Dr.shaykh always seemed very knowledgeable and professional. His staff were equally good. Unfortunate the ivf was not successful for us but I would be willing to use him again in the future.

Make sure to ask questions. They will answer them and you will feel more comfortable.

I started on birthcontrol to manipulate my hormones. I would take a couple different injectables twice a day leading up to the transfer day. I then had another one to get in my hip right before egg retraction day, we had a day 3 transfer. We then took a blood test to confirm pregnancy after 10 days or so.

He was affordable compared to other fertility doctors.

He was good about letting you pick what you felt comfortable with. We transferred two and he made sure we understood risks before signing.

He was amazing he made eye contact with myself and my husband going over every detail of what’s next to come to start the ivf process he explain everything too us that was showing on the ultrasound, he also listened to our input and feelings he was great. He had no weakness in my eyes

Know what u want when facing him because he will insure that u get just what it is you want too do

I have not yet to start the any medications yet or the ivf journey is trying to gather the money to begin and move forward with doctor shaykh

The cost wasn’t bad and they also do payment planing

Not too that point just yet trying to get the money to move forward