Boston IVF

We felt very comfortable with Dr. Zimon. We thought she was the best choice for our fertility needs! Until she quit the practice without notice one day before our sixth round of IVF started. We went with the flow and wished the best for her. Clearly she found greener pastures and we were happy for her. We were disappointed in not being informed by her and given a course of action for our next steps, but again trying to keep positive thoughts... After our sixth round failed, the doctor who we got swapped to told us they understood now why are. Zimon has told us we had an egg issue. However, Dr. Zimon has NEVER mentioned she thought we had an egg issue. We had gone through SIX of our insurance covered IVF rounds at this point without knowing about this supposed egg issue. Unfortunately, we did not walk away with a child and if we had known we had an egg issue, maybe we would have made a few different choices. Was Dr. Zimon great and nice? Absolutely!! But we trusted her to tell us everything to make sure we walked away with a baby. That did not happen and now we question absolutely everything that is said to us and unfortunately have no more covered treatments and are forced to pay completely out of pocket if we wish to go forward with egg donation. Which wells never even a thought since we had no idea it should be.

Ask questions and for second opinions!!!

All was covered under our insurance except for acupuncture that was suggested.

We were informed by Dr. Zimon that our chances would not improve if we were to transfer more than one egg. We were better off freezing the left overs to do frozen cycles.

Dr Alper was very compassionate and knowledgeable with the process. He was very kind and explained the process thoroughly. He also went above and beyond with testing during our recurrent losses. He is very busy and clearly has a heavy case load, which made us feel like just a number rather than a personal experience. This was a downside.

If you are looking to feel like he genuinely knows your case, this is not the doctor for you. He is a great doctor, but doesn’t know he patients well.

We knew, due to bloodwork, my amh level was low. Due to this we started at a higher gonalF level right from the beginning. Midcycle, he noticed I still wasn’t respond the way he wanted and upped the dosage. I liked that he made this adjustment.

Fortunately most of our treatments (and medications) were covered by my insurance.

He is pretty firm on transferring one embryo at a time, even into your 30s. He stated several times that multiple embryo transfer on increases your chance of twins, not a pregnancy.

I had a positive experience with Dr. Sneeringer. I felt she listened and gave thorough explanations for both procedures and the reasoning behind it. She was compassionate and supportive. Ultimately though, I interacted with her nurses on a more daily basis. I would see Dr. Sneeringer to follow up and go over results, but my day to day treatment (injections, monitoring, etc) were done by the support staff.

To really make sure that you are comfortable with the support staff, since that's who you'll be interacting with on a regular basis.

Unfortunately I don't remember the specifics of my protocols. I went through one IUI and three unsuccessful cycles of IVF.

I was very fortunate that our insurance covered almost everything but the genetic testing, which I believe was around $2000.

We chose to transfer one embryo at a time, as my husband was terrified of multiples. Our egg harvesting was not great, so after genetic testing we generally only had one viable embryo anyway.

Dr Penzias was a great RE. I feel he had a lot of experience and was still ready to try new approaches. He did an ERA for me when nobody had really heard of it. In fact my sample was sent to Spain for analysis! He did the killer cells test at my request even though at that point I had not had a miscarriage. He asked my opinion on whether I would prefer a controlled or natural cycle transfer and then discussed why he thought my choice was the one he would have recommended. I felt as in control as you can in an out of control process! He didn't do all of my transfers or retrievals but controlled all of my cycles.

Ask questions. He has a factual rapid fire way of giving facts. Don't be scared to ask him to repeat or elaborate. Take notes if you need to!

I did estrogen priming followed by menopur and follistim (aka gonal f) I did Ivf 3 times and each time my doses were increased as my age also increased. My final and successful cycle I was taking 525 follistim which is very high but it did the trick. As follicles reached their size I took cetrotide to stop ovulation followed by Ovidrel. My protocol did not change but my doses always did. I always got more than 8 eggs and many made it to day 5 each time.

Around 10,00 for a round of Ivf plus meds. About $300 for FET

I had to do eSET because I only have half a uterus so multiples can be high risk. When I had multiple negative tests we became more brave and transferred 2, then 3 embryos. When I did PGD testing and had a viable embryo we only transferred one

Dr. Kim Thornton is a straight shooter and I respect that about her. She didn't sugarcoat anything just to make us feel better, and I appreciated that. She was direct, to the point, and pretty serious. There was no hand-holding. I felt that she had put the best plan together for my specific situation, and trusted her medical expertise. At 28, my FSH levels and AFC was that of a 40 year old, and she diagnosed me with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency - time was not on my side. She felt that we needed to move straight to IVF and not waste any time, so we went for it. I appreciated that she felt the same sort of urgency that if I was going to have my own healthy babies with my husband, it needed to be ASAP. I met with her twice. Once for the initial consult just before Christmas, and once again in Feb after all the diagnostic testing. My first IVF cycle started in April and after 8 days of stimulation it was abruptly cancelled (on a Saturday), because not enough estrogen was being produced. I trusted her expertise, and was instructed to call on Tuesday (after marathon Monday) to schedule followup consult. When I called on Tuesday, I was told that she was on vacation for the rest of the week, and the next available appointment was 8 days away. Not only was she on vacation, there were no other doctors available that could talk to us sooner, except the emergency on-call doctor, but that wasn't an option. As a patient undergoing something as extreme and sensitive as IVF, I'm shocked that my Doctor would go on vacation without a back-up. I'm also shocked that there was no professional courtesy to give us a heads up that she was going away during the most sensitive part of the cycle (days 7 - 16!!!) because that's the critical time for everything IVF related. I would have postponed it, or asked for another Dr to monitor the cycle. Not only that, but I'm also left wondering if my cycle was cancelled because it was inconvenient OR if there simply wasn't anybody there to monitor my cycle.

Ask about upcoming vacation days that may occur during your cycle. Be proactive and be an advocate for yourself.

I'm 28, in-shape, besides my sub-fertility, I'm generally healthy. My husband and I were officially trying, but I wasn't getting my period. I went to see my OB after 6 months and he tested my blood work to see the thyroid/hormone levels. After that he referred me to Dr. Kim Thornton. She revealed that I wasn't ovulating at all, and my FSH was about 2x - 3x higher than it should be at 28. During preliminary ultrasound scans there were 8 antral follicles, not as many as there should have been for my age, but enough that she thought IVF was our best shot. She didn't want me to waste my time with Clomid or IUI. The goal was to stimulate the few follicles that I had with injectibles, and hope for high quality eggs. After diagnostic testing she prescribed levothyroxine to bring my Thyroid levels down. It was within the normal range, but was higher than ideal range for pregnancy, had me start the birth control pill, and start taking CoQ10 to help with egg quality. I continued taking a prenatal vitamin. Summary: Antagonist protocol 300iu Gonal F Redi-Pen and 150 Menopur during stimulation days 1 - 8. Cycle cancelled on stimulation day 8, not enough estrogen being produced. Stim day 6: Ultrasound + bloodwork 7am. Ultrasound technician wouldn't comment on anything. Nurse called around 1p and said that results showed 1 dominant follicle 10mm in left ovary and 2 - 4 small follicles in each. She also said estrogen was way too low and that my cycle may be cancelled, but for now Dr. Thornton wanted me to continue same dose of meds and come back for testing on stim day 8. Stim day 8: Ultrasound + bloodwork 8:30am. The ultrasound technician said there was nothing going on in the right ovary, but 1 dominant follicle 10-11mm and 10 follicles too small to measure in the left ovary. Nurse called around 1:30pm to say that the cycle had been cancelled, and to call on Tuesday to schedule followup meeting with Dr Thornton.

I liked that she was candid about the reality of our situation. Very compassionate in her approach. She gave us options at all stages and I felt she gave us good information for us to make informed decisions.

Ask if after business hours are available for consults.

Costs were mostly covered by insurance

Dr. Penzias is a very caring doctor. He explains things well and doesn’t give false hope. He is optimistic but truthful. He also genuinely seems happy when things go well and celebrates along with you.

Listen to what he says and trust that he won’t steer you wrong.

We were told that Ivf with icsi was our only option because the count and motility was so low. For the ivf cycle I was put on birth control for one month. On day 3 I started final-f. I took that for a few days and was monitored. When the follicles were ready I was told when to take the hcg and when to come back for retrieval. The eggs were retrieved, fertilized and left to grow. We did a day 5 transfer of two embryos. That cycle ended in a negative pregnancy test. The next cycle we did a fet. I was put on a pill, I forgot the name, but it was to help my lining grow but keep me from ovulating I think. When my lining was thick enough two embryos were transferred. I got pregnant with one baby and had my daughter from that cycle. A year later the same thing was done but that ended in a negative test. The doctor thought my lining my have been too thick. The next cycle was the same protocol but that one ended with betas that didn’t double so I was told to stop taking meds. The last time things were done differently but I forgot that protocol. I took a pill and then transferred when the timing was right. That was our last two embryos and it resulted in my second daughter. Each transfer we transferred two embryos.

Thankfully most was covered by insurance. I think by the end of all of the cycles we paid around $5000 out of pocket.

Dr. Alper was very candid with the low chance of success of our initial treatment. He was also didn't push us toward the most invasive treatment for the first round. However, once we made the decision to move forward, it felt like we weren't his patients anymore and instead deposited on some sort of infertility procedure conveyor belt.

Ask him to walk you through the process and his role once you make the decision to move forward. He was great at explaining the medical procedures and what they mean, but didn't tell us that the nurses basically did everything.

Clomid IUI

None-Insurance covered the treadment

Dr. Bayer was great. I'm a very informed patient (and a RN) and Dr. Bayer always was on the same page with what I was thinking. He was incredibly thorough in his testing, and because of his desire to probe things that weren't quite right, was able to diagnose several issues, including a uterine septum, that would have otherwise gone unnoticed and potentially resulted in a miscarriage. He was very nice and attentive. In opposition to other clinics, the REs at Boston IVF do not do their own monitoring (techs and phlebotomists do it) and retrievals and transfers are done by the doctor on-call and not necessarily your doctor. I heard from my nurse after each appt and only met with Dr. Bayer for wtf appointments or by request. I ended up switching clinics purely because I wanted further testing and to add HGH to my protocol, which Boston IVF does not do. As far as my protocol, Dr. Bayer prescribed the same one as my now current RE. Boston IVF practices very sound medicine, but they aren't very open-minded towards "out-of-the-box" treatments, such as HGH or EFT/E-tegrity tests. This was no fault of Dr. Bayers and I would gladly go back to him if we pursue DE.

I would give this advice regardless of the RE - educate yourself!! You cannot have an educated discussion with any health care provider unless you know what you are talking about and what your options are.

Normal CD3 testing with HSG (yielded Celiac Disease dx and DOR), since I have a tilted uterus he wasn't happy with the view of my ute he got with the HSG and sent me for a 3D saline sono (yielded endometrioma and potential septum), sent me to surgical OB for hysteroscopy and confirmed septum. Surgical hysteroscopy and lap for septum and endo removal. Antagonist protocol with bcp prep = 7R, 6M, 4F - 3dt of 1 7-cell HIP embryo = BFN Antagonist protocol with EPP = 7R, 3F - 3dt of 8-cell HIP and 10-cell = c/p (added CoQ10 after IVF #1) Then switched clinics for more testing and use of different cycle tools such as HGH.

Insurance coverage.

She explained everything clearly, including treatment strategies. She was compassionate and relatable. Every step of the way I felt she was making decisions based on current research and my unique situation.

She is open, compassionate and honest. Ask her whatever you want and she will give you a straight answer.

Given my age we decided quantity might be necessary as quality might not be there. I did respond very well to the meds and produced lots of eggs. The last time (successful cycle) she stimmed a bit more slowly and we got more high quality graded embryos. She tweaked each cycle based on the results of the last. I think the transfer MDs also play a huge roll. Some transfers didn't seem great but the last one you could tell the doctors thought the embryos were placed perfectly and bingo!

My insurance covered everything but I have phenomenal insurance and live in Massachusetts where laws force insurance companies to cover infertility treatments. Not sure this is applicable to most people.

He was kind, friendly, compassionate, good sense of humor (very important to us), handled tears and emotions from us really well. He moved at our speed which was somewhat aggressive. Encouraged us to do a mind/body program at Harvard which was happening in 2001.

This was a long time ago. I know that I did 3 cycles of chlomid with my ob/gyn and then she referred us out. On the 3rd IUI cycle in 1998, we got pregnant and had a child in 1999 (after a chemical pregnancy the month before). 2 years late we went back and after 3 failed IUI cycles, we did 3 IVF cycles, None worked, but the following month after the IVF cycle, we were pregnant (we had been approved for a GIFT cycle and were pursuing adoption).

Everything was covered by insurance in the great state of MA

He was willing to put in a few embyos based on our comfort level with multiples

Dr. Penzias was clearly knowledgeable and explained things thoroughly. He is very friendly and cut to the chase regarding my age and chances of conception with my own eggs, but didn't imply that it "wasn't worth the time." I just felt like I wasn't always given enough time to ask questions or inquire about alternate conception methods.

List questions and make sure they are addressed at consult.

Based on my baseline hormone levels and age, a high dose of Gonal-F and Menopur were used to obtain the maximum number of eggs. Ultrasounds and bloodwork was done throughout cycle, but no adjustments were made as I responded well to stimulation meds.

Insurance covered everything except PGT-A testing, about $3900/cycle.

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She was friendly and warm but also professional and competent. I felt very confident that she knew what she was doing and was very good at her job. She answered all my questions and I didn't feel like she was running any unnecessary tests. I had a great experience.

go and see her

Don't remember

Efficient well oiled machine, I usually opted for early morning appointments before work so I was usually the first or second patient. They brought me in quickly, were friendly and helpful. I never had any trouble scheduling appointments

Don't remember

Given my age some places might have suggested multiple embryo transfer but she took into account my blood tests and personal preference and went ahead with eSET

Dr. Kim Thornton was easy to communicate with, was very knowledgeable and adjusted the course of treatment based on my timeline, needs and insurance restrictions. She treated me like a person and was easy to talk to.

Dr. Kim Thornton is very experienced and has a lot of practice treating infertility issues.

We had already had frozen eggs being stored so the treatment protocol was fairly straight forward. She put me on birth control for 6-8 weeks to regulate my cycles and finish testing. When that was completed we started estrogen patches and pills. The next step is an ultrasound and blood work and depending on the outcome we will be discussing the transfer.

Most of my procedures have been covered by my insurance minus my co-pay and out of pocket expenses. Costs of treatments vary.

We are only allowed to transfer one embryo at a time based on my age and insurance restrictions. Dr. Thornton is passionate that multiple embryos lead to a more high risk pregnancy for the mom and baby.

As a patient, my experience with Dr. Wright has been outstanding. For example, my wife and I have had many questions regarding the treatment process and "next steps" after suffering tubal loss. Dr. Wright is always so specific and thorough when answering questions, always easing our anxieties. As a patient, my journey as been quite tumultuous. Dr. Wright as been a beacon of light for my wife and I as we continue on.

Ask questions! Dr. Wright will always be so thorough and clear for you.

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I thought Dr Penzias was outstanding and I am happy he is my doctor. The clinic is big and due to the nature you only see your doctor at office appointments to go over results/next plan- and he calls. I wish in a way I saw him at a retrieval and I wish on my last round where I had so many eggs that we talked about a 3 day transfer given my age

Ask questions- I didn't and go in prepared

e2-antagonist because I was DOR and it worked in that I had a decent number of eggs retrieved. I liked the idea of freezing embryos and doing a transfer later

The monitoring site was amazing with incredible staff in Providence Ri! They were incredibly caring, professional and generally a cheering squad

$15,000 out of pocket per time and I did it twice so far

I wish I had also considered a 3 day transfer

I didn’t see him much but when I did he was very kind and easy to talk to. He was very positive that I would really benefit from a round of ivf. He went over everything that was going to happen with the ivf.

Trust him. I’m sure women going through infertility issues think this isn’t going to work either it’s just going to be a way for the doctor to get money. But it’s not it’s really works it gives you hope of haven’t a family.

My husbands insurance did not pay for any fertility treatments so we had to wait another year for open enrollment with my job. Once that was taken care of i has $10,000 for treatment and $10,000 for medications but it was only once per lifetime. Once I ran out I would have to pay out of pocket.

I requested to transfer two in hopes of a higher chance of pregnancy and I ended up with twins!!

Dr. Sneeringer approached us with empathy and understanding. She was also candid and straightforward about the realities of our situation. She struck a perfect balance in my opinion -- she didn't sugar-coat things, but she always made us feel that we were being heard, and she always looked for new solutions.

Dr. Sneeringer is a highly knowledgable and capable RE. It's rare for treatment plans to work perfectly the first time, but that is not a reflection on the doctor. The key is finding a doctor who is willing to brainstorm solutions and who will use your past results to adjust your treatment. I think she's great.

Dr. Rita is very kind, warm and compassionate. She is very knowledgeable and helpful. Tammy is my favorite nurse, she communicates often, is prompt, clear and supportive. Patients usually communicate with nurses more than the doctor.

Have a list of questions, communicate all your worries, wants and needs.

I am working with a gestational carrier, she was very good at carefully screening my carrier.

The costs were pretty high, higher than other clinics I’ve worked with

One embryo transfer was highly recommended but two embryos was not denied for us.

Dr. Berger was a breath of fresh air after my first doctor. He really took my diagnosis into account in planning my cycle and monitored my progress very closely. I don’t believe I would have my beautiful twins if it weren’t for him and his attention to my case.

Get on the schedule as early as possible as he is very busy and don’t be afraid to ask any question.

Estrogen priming, step down protocol with FSH and hcg

All covered under insurance except for co-pays for appointments and meds ($20/appt, $30/med)

Given my significant DOR, both doctors I saw felt multiple embryo transfer was appropriate to maximize chances. I am somewhat young and in very good health so was a good candidate for carrying twins as my OB explained.

Dr. Ryley was warm, compassionate, and understanding. He took the failures and setbacks as hard as we did. He provided both statistics as well as his own experience so we knew the range of things to expect with each step. We always felt like he was on our team, rooting for our success.

You are your own best advocate, but you will feel like you have another fighter on your team with Dr. Ryley.

He helped us make challenging decisions about which and how many embryos to transfer, whether to freeze or do PGS; He was very thorough and was willing to collaborate with Dr. Braverman (where other REs were not).

It’s worth driving to see him- we drove over an hour and a half to see him and it was completely worth it.

Routine protocol for lead in with a estrogen patches.

Thankfully all covered by insurance except for the last transfer-$4K

Strengths: unintimidating, kind, very knowledgeable, able to explain things to a non-medical person in easy terms. Didn’t feel rushed during my appointments, and it is clear that he valued his staff and seemed to have a mutual appreciation and respect for each other. Weaknesses: could be a bit warmer.

Take notes or ask him to write down notes for you as you discuss. He made me some great notes and diagrams that helped me to remember everything later

He recommended I transfer only one, especially as I had chosen to do PGS. I was fully on board with this strategy

Dr. DiGirolamo is a good communicator who offers helpful explanations and spoke to me at my level (I am a healthcare provider). She took the time to explain the issues I was facing and her recommendations for a plan. I am still undergoing treatment.

Write down all of your questions in advance so you remember everything you want to ask her.

I only recently underwent testing to determine my ovarian reserve, hormone levels, etc. I have only had one cycle of IUI so far.

The costs were covered by insurance after I met my deductible. The cost seemed reasonable compared to other fertility clinics.

I don’t have a comment on this.

He was very optimistic but not blindly so. He was very friendly and made a sad and uncomfortable process much easier. He talked to us like humans and made me more optimistic than my previously two failed transfers

He is very kind and has great compassion and warmth for patients

He did my transfer but my third one so my embryos were already frozen

I do not remember

None. He recommend SET for my age which is mid 20/