CCRM Minneapolis

Dr. Dahl was very warm and compassionate. She was a clear and direct communicator and was very willing to talk through her thoughts and processes. She spent over an hour with us during our initial consult and was very thorough in answering questions, proactively asking targeted questions, and devising a plan of care which included consults with several third-party specialties. Dr. Dahl completely exceeded both mine and my husband's expectations in communication, warm bedside manner, and medical knowledge/expertise. I've worked with three other infertility doctors, who all approached my treatment and care like I was just a number, not wanting to answer my questions, and not individualizing my care. After just one visit with Dr. Dahl, we are in awe of her personalized approach to treating our infertility. We have so much trust in her approach and expertise.

Be open about your medical history and lifestyle. Be ready to hear the pros and risks of treatment and possibly to see other care professionals prior to beginning treatment.

Dr. Dahl referred us to a maternal fetal medicine doctor, geneticist, and possibly cariologist prior to starting any workup or treatments on us. After we are "cleared" by these other consults, she plans to do a full one-day workup for both my husband and myself at their clinic in Minneapolis.

Our experience as patients has allowed us to ask all of the questions that we needed and be lined up for all of the treatments that were necessary. Dr. Hanson and CCRM does lean on their large network to enable them to see a large amount of patients. This can seem a little impersonal at times, but it also allows the clinic to serve a greater number of individuals.

Be sure to expect most of the communication to come from nurses and be very good at checking all the information on the on line portal.

My wife was diagnosed with PCOS, which made the medications that were required for IVF retrieval extremely expensive.

$18,597 for 1 egg retrieval and implantation. This did not include the $3,500+ in medications.

The approach was Single Embryo Transfer.

Dr Kohlmeier is fantastic, I wish I could talk to her more but you can always send a portal message and the nurses will help you get a response. She is a genuinely kind person and has adjusted my medications for my second retrieval. We have focused on what we can do differently to get our desired result. IVF is a complicated process but she explains everything and is patient and gives reasonable expectations.

Ask your questions, she can’t read your mind or know what you don’t know. It’s important to ask timelines too. IVF takes awhile and it’s not something I realized at first.

We are currently in process for starting our second egg retrieval in which we have added growth hormone to hopefully produce higher quality embryos. The first round went well and we ended with 3 genetically tested normal embryos. Unfortunately the first we transferred ended in miscarriage (this happens). We have 2 left but want 2 kids so are doing another egg retrieval to hopefully “bank” embryos. We will then be doing a transfer of one of our test embryos 5 days post egg retrieval if my uterus looks optimal.

I have very good insurance so I’ve only paid my out of pocket max of $5500

eSET. I’m high risk so can’t risk more than one embryo anyway but she stated she prefers only one tested embryo in general.

She is has been great so far. We’ve only met with her twice, I’d maybe want to hear from her a bit more. But the nurse is great and is able to answer all our questions. Amy has a very patient demeanor and never showed any annoyance at our questions that I’m sure bounced all over the place

Organize your thoughts/questions. Don’t ever feel like it’s “too early” to ask questions in the process.

We did two IUIs previous to meeting with her just at my OB clinic. We were feeling defeated when we started. She gave us the option to do one more IUI or switch to IVF and layed out the options for both. We felt good about our decision to move forward with IVF.

About $30-$35k

We are doing PGT-A. So just one embryo

Dr Brent Hanson was very meticulous when going over our past medical histories, TTC history, and current labs and tests at CCRM. He ensured that we were put on the most appropriate treatment plan and retrieval medication process, without over-medicating. Dr. Hanson was not the doctor assigned to us on the day of our retrieval, but made a point to stop by during recovery to chat about number of eggs retrieved, and just to see how we were doing overall. IVF and infertility are incredibly overwhelming and emotionally exhausting processes, and having a medical professional as intelligent, educated, and most importantly, compassionate as Dr. Hanson has truly helped to smooth over so many bumps and hurdles.

Through Egg Retrieval, including medications, $15,000

Dr. Salem is a compassionate, knowledgeable and highly trained professional who provides excellent patient care. Under his care my health was utmost importance. Before moving on with any treatment Dr. Salem ordered multiple tests to ensure nothing was abnormal. He took note of my blood pressure each time I was in the office and noticed how consistently high it remained. He eventually diagnosed me with high blood pressure and prescribed a medication safe for pregnant women and women trying to conceive.

The one advice I would give a prospective patient of ask Dr. Salem would be to have access of knowledge of all your previous medical records as well as your partner/spouse. Dr. Salem is very thorough and this will aid in your future treatment under his care.

The protocol Dr. Salem chose for me was specific for me. I followed FET protocol, but prior to the transfer (2-3 months before) I took an injection of Lupron to help reduce the symptoms of endometriosis. Once I started the protocol I used multiple hormones, vaginal pills, transdermal patches and injections. I became pregnant after each cycle, but miscarried in the first trimester.

The costs were explained thoroughly by the billing staff. If we had any questions we just called to verify any amounts due.

Dr. Salem strongly recommends only transferring a single embryo base off scientific data, which I completely agree with. Transferring more than one embryo may result in multiple embryo’s competing for space which may result in an unsuccessful pregnancy.

She is a very nice person, caring and seems to connect with you as a patient. You only really see Dr. B when you do your initial consult, and for specific procedures the rest of the time your communication is with your nurse. This felt a bit off-putting but again, we know she is busy. If I asked questions to my nurse she would get back to you with details from Dr. B. I felt like Dr. B is the best provider in the office, but with that she is very busy and very sought after. What i learned was to have questions ready and rapid fire ask when I saw her. She seemed distracted during re-groups and they felt rushed. Throughout the process i didn't always feel confident in her ability to help our family grow. She is smart, personable, and made eye-contact.

Be prepared. If you have questions be ready with them, don't be afraid to push back, you really have to be your own advocate throughout the process. Double-Check everything because Dr. B rarely takes the time to get down to the nitty gritty details.

I feel like they used and re-used the same calendars based on initial screenings. I did not feel like my FET was personal or personalized to me, they would adjust things based on labs, but nothing seemed like it was just for me... After completing an ERA my FET was adjusted slightly but again it was a calendar for "pre-receptive" ERA results, nothing geared toward me or my specifics.

I was adamant about transferring 2 embryos. This resulted in a positive pregnancy test.

Amanda was very good at describing her part in everything and what they would do during the whole process. The only weakness I saw was that there was an implication of the semen collected for analysis was also going to be used for fertilization. This is not the case. No big deal, but worth mentioning.

Make sure intended parents fulling understand what their next steps are so there isn't any confusion.

We're going with an egg donor since we are a same sex male couple, so we don't need to do any treatments.

Yes, this is the shocking and sad part. Our total package for everything is over $46,000.

Amanda has a very strong preference of eSET because they do extensive testing of the embryos. If the quality of embryos is good, she'd only do eSET. If they were lower quality embryos, she mentioned she'd be open to potentially doing DET (if surrogate was willing).

He was thorough with explaining what the plan was and why he was choosing that corse of action. I felt that I could bring up studies I read about regarding fertility and he took the time to discuss what his thoughts were and explain why it was a good or bad idea for my particular treatment. I think Dr. Salem stays up to date on current fertility treatments and studies.

If you are unsure about something don’t hesitate to ask questions. He will gladly answerer or explain anything you don’t understand.

I am starting my first IVF cycle next month. We have one more regroup before we start since we just redid my labs. We were set to take Lupron, Cetrotide, Gonal F, HCG, and some other medications that I can not recall. We are doing ICSI due to my husband having low mobility and 22% DNA fragmentation.

We were quoted around 29,000 for one cycle with meds and PGS testing and 42,000 for a three cycle package.

Dr. Salem only does eSet.

I think she truly cares about her patients and making their miracle baby come true. She’s always been super sweet and positive every time we’ve spoke. The only downside is that I’ve only seen her a couple times besides the procedures.

That you’re in good hands.

April was the first Endocrinologist that diagnosed me with Graves’ disease and put me on medication to balance my thyroid levels. This helped me tremendously! Next, we dove into IVF. I was given 1 calendar that indicated what drugs, shots and patches to use for retrieval. I can’t remember all of the medication I was on. I just finished up with my second calendar and that was prepping for transfer. The worst shot I was on was Lupron. I absolutely hated it and the way it made me feel. Eventually, I started taking half the dosage and that helped a ton. I had my transfer last Tuesday, and I’m currently on progesterone oil shots, endometrin, and Vivelle dot patches for ten weeks.

I think the total cost of everything plus chromosome testing is about $11,000 out of pocket.

I am very comfortable as his patient. He seemed to believe in eventual success even when other doctors were suggesting egg donors and this trust eventually led to a few embryos. He is warm and genuine in his approach. I did feel the need to be my own advocate. He was not comfortable straying beyond the initial protocol he set for me. I needed to do my research and ask about a lot of different options and paths which was not presented to me.

Be your own advocate. Don't be afraid to research and propose or ask about possibly taking alternative paths

Cycle 1 antagonist - no embryos Cycle 2 antagonist - no embryos Cycle 3 microflare lupron - a few embryos

Dr. Salem has a breadth of knowledge about all things fertility and assisted reproductive technology, from more traditional approaches and opinions, to new research that's coming out. CCRM has a list of vitamins they recommend for female patients, and after giving that to me, Dr. Salem told me about a study that's being conducted at CCRM in Colorado where they've found improved success rates in IVF cycles for patients who took acai berry. He said their proprietary blend wasn't for sale, but that if I could get my hands on some acai berry to give it a try. I really appreciated the personalized recommendation. Dr. Salem has also customized our IVF protocol based on my issues (low AMH) and he's been good about explaining why he recommends this or that. With my former RE, I was always second-guessing things and feeling like I needed to do my own research. With Dr. Salem, it feels so good knowing we can trust him and that we are in good hands.

Ask all the questions! He's so good giving his opinion and backing it up with scientific evidence, but he will explain everything in a way you can understand. I honestly would recommend Dr. Salem to anyone, 10/10.

Because I have low AMH, we are doing estrogen priming instead of birth control. I am taking 2mg of Estrace (oral), twice a day for about 2 weeks. With my next cycle day 3, we will do baseline ultrasound and blood work, and everything looks good we will start stims. I will be doing 2 vials of Menopur (injection) in the morning, and at night I will do 300 units of Follistim (injection), plus 100 mg of Clomid (oral), and Dexamethasone (oral). Again, since I don't have a lot of eggs, we are pretty much doing max stims to try to recruit as many as possible. At some point I will start Cetrocide/Ganirelix (injection) - not sure what dose, I think this is to prevent me from ovulating before the retrieval. Because we hope to have 2-3 children, we are doing CCRM's family building program, which was recommended to us by Dr. Salem. This means we will do 3 freeze-all retrievals and after the last retrieval all of the embryos will get genetic testing (this saves $ because you're only paying for genetic testing once rather than 3 times). Then we will do a single FET, and any remaining healthy embies will stay on ice for future use.

Costs are comparable with our former clinic. Because we are doing the family building program which is discounted, plus we get a military discount, the cost of 3 retrievals and 1 FET will be about $40k I think.

Dr. Salem definitely seems to lean towards eSET, at least in our case. He said he would only recommend transferring 2 embryos if I had two miscarriages with a singleton (though I think he probablyyyy would be open to transferring 2 after only one miscarriage).

As a patient I feel like Dr. Batcheller did really took the time and effort to review my history and go over our treatment plan. Dr. Batcheller also very details in her explanations. Love her energetic approach and how knowledgeable she is.

Don't loose HOPE until you see Dr. Batcheller.

Too early. We just finished our consultation, done labs and ultrasound. Still need a hysteroscopy and regroup before we can start IVF treatments

Consultation $205 Labs $1083 Ultrasound $397 Hysteroscopy $970 Regroup $224 IVF Pack $15104 Anesthesia $475 Annual Storage $408 PICSI $408 FET package $4208

No comments. Didn't get that far yet.

Dr. Salem has been very compassionate and great at communicating. He is the only doctor on staff right now while the other is out on maternity leave but he still took the time to call with updates and give us next steps. Everyone at the clinic has been wonderful and caring and patient with all the questions we’ve had throughout the process.

Ask as many questions as you want. He’s extreme patient and kind and really makes you feel like he wants to help, you’re not just a number.

Due to my husbands abnormal sperm sample and the fact that we had tried other approaches prior to going to CCRM, Dr. Salem thought our most efficient and best option would be IVF since my tests showed normal results. We are currently in the transfer prepping phase of the cycle.

So far the costs have been surprisingly minimal through our insurance. I do wish we could have gotten a better estimate up front on what the cost of the entire cycle was going to be including medications.

My doctor does the single embryo approach. When I asked about doing multiples to possibly have a better shot, he explained the benefits for the mother and child if only one is transferred and that made me feel better about the approach and care for myself after getting pregnant.

Dr. Batcheller, when I saw her which was not often, was kind and patient. She fully explained the procedure and risks and answered all of my questions. My interactions with her have always been pleasant.

More time with each patient and more availability for patients. I was not able to talk to Dr. Batcheller directly at all over the phone and when I asked for an email address to send her an email, I was given a non-functioning email address. When I tried, via the portal, to obtain a working email, I received no response.

$3500 for transfer plus the cost of medications

Dr. Batcheller prefers a single embryo transfer for good candidates due to the likelihood of twins.

I went to see Dr. Batcheller right after I was diagnosed with cancer. She and everyone at the clinic, got me in urgently, helped me understand my options, moved quickly and treated me with compassion. I tried to get two retrievals in, but my cancer grew too quickly so I had to cancel the second one. Dr. Batcheller gives all of the pertinent information and allows the patient to make the decisions that are best for them. I could not recommend her and her clinic more highly. While she was on maternity leave, I also saw Dr. Salem at the same clinic, and he was amazing too! I highly highly recommend this clinic and these doctors!

Choose Dr. Batcheller and CCRM for your fertility needs.

It cost about $15,000 for the egg retrieval, fertilization process, and genetic testing. That also included all appointments, ultrasounds, blood draws, and the actual retrieval procedure. That did not include medication.

I was sufficiently educated about about the number of embryos that should be transferred. Since I have a limited number, transferring them one at a time will give me a better chance of success.

The first time I met Dr. Salem, he provided us with clear timelines and what things would look like. He was very thorough and has a personality that helps to make people feel comfortable. I have twins that were done previously through IVF at a clinic that is no longer open and he was diligent in getting all of that information to help inform him on my care.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. He is very open and honest about what to expect and outcomes.

The first thing that I did at CCRM was to get a full workup. They took blood and did ultrasounds to be sure that I was in good health. It was at this time that he prescribed me with thyroid medication to be sure that I had optimal levels. Then I went on birth control for 3 weeks before beginning my stimulation meds. I am on the last day of my stimulation meds now. I take 2 vials of menopur in the morning with my thyroid medication. At night I take Follistim and Dex. On day 5 I also began taking Gonirelix in the morning with the Menopur. I have had daily ultra sounds and blood work for the last 5 days. I will likely trigger tonight.

Cost of medication was about $7,000 Cost of everything else was about $20,000 We did IVF with CCS testing. They also had sperm thaw.

Dr. Salem prefers single embryo transfer as he believes that with added testing the results are likely going to be positive.

Dr Salem takes the time to be prepared for our appointments and spent time to understand our goals before we developed a treatment plan. While we have not had a complete cycle due to setbacks, he has adjusted our plan to ensure that we are setting ourselves up for the best results.

Bring all of the questions that you can to understand the process, He was able to break down our plan using our results. It was helpful for me to have my questions written down so that I was sure I got all of the answers that I needed to feel good moving forward with our plan.

I have PCOS and my husband has a normal sperm count/motility so we are good candidates for IUI. With the success rate of IUI (about 20%) the plan is to do 3 rounds of IUI and if not successful moving on to IVF. We were ready to start an IUI procedure using letrozole to trigger ovulation, sadly the lab found that one of my ovaries had an active cyst which would interfere with the treatment plan. So we did a 3 week cycle of birth control pills to quiet it down. We are currently waiting to see if that did the trick to move to doing a full cycle.

$383 was the cost for a sperm analysis and cryopreservation $253 is about what a monitoring appointment costs (day 2/3 appointment)

Dr. Batcheller was always pleasant when I met with her. She explained step by step what was going to happen when she was doing procedures or if we needed to change treatment course (which happened multiple times). I do wish I would have had more face time with her vs. the nurses but if I ever needed to get a hold of her for questions - she was available. I loved her and will continue to go back to her for all my fertility treatments!

Ask lots of questions and tell her how you would like to communicate. I preferred a more direct approach and she respected that.

Egg Retrieval: Normal protocol using Gonal-F, Menopur, Cetrotride. We STIM'd for 10 days and retrieved 24 eggs on the 11th day. Embryo Transfer: We attempted 3 times for a transfer but due to having a thin lining we had to cancel 2 times (was successful on the 3rd). After the first transfer attempted was cancelled, I was worried and unsure about the future and if we would be able to transfer. She calmed my worries and looked at my medicine and changed course accordingly, always trying to find the right mix of medication. I was so discouraged when we cancelled but she was always positive and assured me that sometimes when bodies have a hard time getting a thicker lining they just have to change the medicine protocol. I have been on Estrogren (oral and patches), Vaginal Viagra, Progesterone, Baby Aspirin, Endometrin, etc.

Medicine (Egg Retrieval + 3 Transfers attempts + 1 successful Transfer) = $15,000+ Care: Unsure - at least $7,500. My insurance coveres a specific amount (which has now been used up). Our costs will be different when we do this another time.

I trusted Dr. Batcheller's approach to transferring just the 1 embryo.We only had 2 good embryo's and we did discuss transferring both but she wanted to make sure that we had the best chances for success - which meant transferring only the 1, which was successful.

Dr. Batcheller always made us feel like we were making progress, even when things didn’t go our way. She was always up on the latest research and was very forthcoming with us when things she recommended were experimental vs. proven. She is compassionate, yet still candid, which I appreciate.

Be your own advocate and ask for tests you want right away vs. waiting until you have a failed transfer.

I don’t have the details.

$14k for Stim/Retrieval (~$10k for meds) $4k for Transfer ($5k for meds)

She had a strong recommendation for a SET given our “unexplained” diagnosis and the risks that come along with a multiple pregnancy.

We have only completed our initial work up and are starting down the path of IVF with the genetic testing, after finding out we are both carriers of CF. This came as a shock to both my husband and I, but Dr Salem discussed the risks and options we had and let us choose which path we wanted to take. He was sympathetic and kind during this stage, especially as I found this out on the anniversary of a dear friend passing of CF. He reassured us that we can work around this risk factor but also explained the challenges.

Trust him. I am so thankful we found Dr Salem and CCRM

We are just starting with creating the probe for our genetic mutation so we have not begun our IVF cycle yet. We have to wait until the probe is ready.

We have not reached this stage of our plan yet

Dr. Batcheller has slowly gotten much busier over the last 3 years. It is definitely more challenging now to get in touch with her directly than it was back in 2016. She still performs all of her own procedures but often the diagnostic testing is now done by nurses or the other physician on staff. I also often wonder why the nursing staff has as much control over patient calendars. The nursing staff says that they review all calendars with Dr. Batcheller on a weekly basis but if that is true I question some of the decisions that have been made on some of my calendars and would expect Dr. Batcheller to know based on previous cycles what works and what does not work for me.

Be very clear what type of communication you expect from her so that she can meet your expectations or so that you know what you can expect from her.

1 IVF cycle with 4 successful embryos and a fresh transfer leading to a successful birth (September 2016) 1 frozen transfer cycle with a negative pregnancy test (January 2019) 1 frozen transfer cycle canceled due to illness (September 2019) 1 frozen transfer cycle pending (October 2019) All frozen transfers included lupron with two weeks of estrogen

Frozen transfer cost approximately $5,000 plus medications, IVF cycle with fresh transfer cost $12,000 plus medications

No concerns, we wanted to transfer only one embryo

I met with Dr. Salem after having a bad experience at another fertility clinic. He is incredibly kind and compassionate. He is also incredibly smart and up to date on the latest information about fertility treatments. He worked really hard to get me the maximum number of eggs for freezing and tailored my treatment plan specifically to my issues (I ended up getting nearly double the number of eggs that I got at the previous clinic!) I sent my sister to him also because I was so impressed with his services.

Go see him! He is a great doctor! If you are a woman who its hesitant to go see a male ob/gyn, don't let that stop you - get the best treatment possible from the best doctor.

My treatment protocol was "Luteal Oral-Clomid Protocol 5 - freeze all only." I did a round of egg freezing at a prior clinic and got 7 mature eggs. Dr. Salem's goal was to get me at least a few more the second round. To do that, he advised me to wait 3 months after stopping birth control pills to see if my AMH would increase (it did! went from .5 to 1.78). Based on that, Dr. Salem concluded that birth control pills had a very suppressive effect on my ovaries, so rather than start my cycle with down-regulation by taking birth control pills, I waited for my natural LH surge and then started priming my ovaries by taking estrogen (estrace 2 mg tab twice a day). On day 3 of my next cycle I stopped taking estrace and started taking the stim meds (2 vials of menopur in the morning, 300 units follistim in the evening + 2 tabs of clomid for 5 days + dexamethosone). On day 7 of the stim meds I added in ganirelix in the morning. Triggered after 11 days of stims with HCG and Lupron. I got 13 mature eggs this round - almost double what I got at the previous clinic. I feel that Dr. Salem is directly responsible for the improvement - he really looked into which treatment plan would work best for my circumstances. The other clinic planned to do their exact same protocol a second time (birth control pills for 2 weeks to down-regulate, then start with 1 vial of menopur in the morning + 225 units of follistim in the evening, add ganirelix and then trigger with just HCG). It didn't work well the first time and they had to increase the medication half way though - I believe that if I had done that protocol again, I wouldn't have gotten as many eggs. In addition, they made it seem as though that was the best they could do for me - that because of my low AMH I should just be happy with the number I got. It was very frustrating. Dr. Salem's approach was much more tailored to me and really addressed the concerns I had at the first clinic. He is optimistic and tries to do the best for all of his patients.

$8,754 for an egg freezing cycle + $475 for anesthesia. The clinic also offers to reduce the fee for a second cycle by 20% and 15% for each cycle after that.

I’ve met Dr. Batcheller once or twice, but she’s always been super helpful and friendly. In our initial consult with her, we talked about our plan being 3 months of IUI and then evaluate from there. At that point, she was so optimistic for us that we never spoke of what would come next and that was comforting. Unfortunately IUI has not worked for ya yet. We’re trying a 4th round with some new meds and if that doesn’t work, we’ll have our regroup appointment next month. Honestly, we see more of the other staff and they’ve all been great.

Stop in and say hi during appointments every now and again if you’re available!

IUI with Clomid (1pill x 5days), Ovidrel and Progesterone. Our second cycle, I ovulated on my own, so Ovidrel wasn’t needed. In our upcoming 4th round, we’re adding in 3 injections of Gonal-F. So far, no positive tests, but we’re optimistic about this round.

Our insurance is taking a while to process things, so I know we’re not up to date. So far we’ve spent around $2000. I anticipate it will be more though.

Dr. Salem primary did phone consists with me as we were far from the clinic. He always explained things in a way I could understand and made me feel confident our cycle would be successful. He explained his experience and how it compared with our expected treatment plan and I never doubted his expertise. He was caring during painful procedures and his knowledge of infertility blew me away. When answering questions I had, he did so in a way that didn’t belittle my lack of knowledge and explained everything so wonderfully.

If you’re unable to get the answers you need from his nursing staff, ask to speak directly with him. He’s more than happy to set aside time to speak with you.

For our Egg Retreival process, I was on 150units of Gonal F for 10 days starting day 16 of my cycle. I also did 1 vial of menopur for those 10 days and 5 days of cetrotide starting day 21 of my cycle. For my trigger prior to retreival I did leuprolide and novarel. I was also placed on a medication to lower my estrogen levels 2 days prior to retreival.

Ivf Egg retreival with Genetic testing and 1 frozen transfer is approximately $25000

Dr. Salem stated he prefers single embryo transfers