How was your experience with Armando Hernandez-Rey at Conceptions Florida?
In this harsh world of infertility, every patient needs a doctor who can empathize and go above and beyond to make them (the patient) feel as comfortable as possible. Dr. Hernandez-Rey is exactly that kind of doctor. While being upfront and honest about everything and anything that has to do with any cycle or treatment, he also portrays concern for the patient as if it were his family. Dr. Hernandez-Rey truly does care about his patients and everything they have to go through. He never once made me feel pressured into doing any one specific treatment instead of another. He will always give his best advice based on knowledge an experience but lets the patient "run the show". In one of my first cycles of IVF he gave me his personal number in case I had any questions or concerns because of all the emotional stress I had been under. He knew that my husband at the time (Ex-husband now) was deployed overseas and it was an extremely difficult time for me. Every time I had any questions or if I was getting results, he himself would be the one to call me. Besides being a very knowledgeable doctor, he is also a very personable doctor as well.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Armando Hernandez-Rey at Conceptions Florida?
The one piece of advice that I would give a prospective patient is that Dr. Hernandez-Rey has a lot of knowledge and experience with infertility. He is also very dependable in many aspects. He stays up to date on any new technology or treatment options that may affect the outcome of certain treatments and cycles. Along with the knowledge, experience, and dependability, he has amazing bed side manners which can make this journey a great experience.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Armando Hernandez-Rey at Conceptions Florida?
At every visit and experience with Dr. Hernandez-Rey and his staff, I felt very cared for and important. The doctor and his staff always made me feel welcomed and showed unconditional love and support through each cycle and treatment that I went through.
Describe the protocols Armando Hernandez-Rey used in your cycles at Conceptions Florida and their degree of success.
Before starting any treatment, Dr. Hernandez-Rey requested all kinds of labs in order to develop a baseline and a specific course of treatment just for me based on the results.
After multiple lab test, the main factor in my infertility was my ovarian reserve/egg quality and also my husband's sperm (Ex-husband currently). Dr. Hernandez-Rey was very honest in a compassionate way explaining my results and then going over the best plan of action to achieve a successful pregnancy.
First treatment: Since I was out of town a lot that summer, the first treatment was oral medication to help my ovaries and just normal intercourse. Unfortunately that treatment was not successful.
Second Treatment: First IVF cycle. I was on an aggressive dose of injection medication to produce a lot of eggs. Dr. Hernandez-Rey told me that although it was an aggressive dose of those medications, due to my low ovarian reserve and poor egg quality, he was not expecting a lot of eggs at retrieval. On retrieval day, he was able to retrieve 4 eggs. Out of the 4, 3 were viable. And out of the 3 eggs, zero fertilized. On this cycle, I used my husband at the time, now ex-husband, frozen sperm. Dr. Hernandez-Rey believed due to my poor egg quality and the frozen sperm, which was not the best quality either, caused the outcome of no fertilization on any of the 3 eggs.
Third Treatment: Second IVF cycle. Due to my continued diagnosis of low ovarian reserve, Dr. Hernandez-Rey decided to do a mini-stim (Mini Stimulation) which means it would be a low dose of oral medication along with a low dose of injections. Since no matter how aggressive we go in stimulation medication, I will most likely respond with a low number of eggs, then doing a mini-stim will still produce a low number of eggs, but those eggs will be of better quality.
Per the protocol that was set up just for my case, I took a few days or oral and about 3-4 days of low dose injection medication. On egg retrieval day, 2 eggs were retrieved and 1 was fertilized with the donor sperm I had purchased since this was something I was doing on my own. There is nothing more I want than to be a mother to a beautiful healthy child. I had gotten divorced and with my time being very limited due to my diminished ovarian reserve, then I decided to purchase donor sperm to have my child. On day 5 embryo transfer, the embryologist spoke to me explaining how my embryo had developed in the past 5 days. He provided a picture of the embryo and explained as much as he could about the embryo itself. I remember him mentioning that it was a grade A embryo! Then I saw Dr. Hernandez-Rey in the procedure room while they were prepping me for the transfer. He was the doctor who was transferring my one and only good embryo. He explained all the details of the transfer and answered any questions I had pertaining to the embryo transfer. The transfer went great and then about 10 days later i went in for a blood pregnancy test. The test came back positive! My HCG levels had some trouble doubling when it was suppose to but nonetheless I was pregnant! My first ultrasound at 6 weeks showed a sac, and a fetal pole with a flutter heartbeat. I went two weeks later to make sure everything progressed as it should have been and also check the heartbeat again. Unfortunately at this ultrasound the baby had no heartbeat. I was scheduled for a D&C the following Monday. About 2 weeks after the procedure, I had a follow up visit with Dr. Hernandez-Rey to go over the pathology results. The results showed abnormal male which meant it was a boy and that he had 2 chromosomal abnormalities due to my poor egg quality.
All cycles are difficult but this one was very tough for me. I felt like I had gotten a little closer to my dreams coming true and just like that it was gone.
I have not given up. I know that Dr. Hernandez-Rey has not given up either and will continue to guide me in the right direction to help me obtain a successful pregnancy and birth.
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Describe your experience with your nurse at Conceptions Florida. (Assigned nurse: Brittany Grinstead)
The entire staff at Conceptions Florida are amazing! With as busy as they are, they make the time to explain anything you ask and go out of their way to make sure you feel great and comfortable. The 2 main IVF nurse coordinators are such blessings! Since during my last treatment I did not have a significant other, they were my support team the entire time. They are very compassionate, patient, empathizing and very professional. Everyone from the front desk all the way to the nurse in the procedure room was so great! I cannot say enough how much they really made this experience a great one, regardless of the unfortunate results.
Describe your experience with Conceptions Florida.
I think the clinics strengths are how they are so advanced with technology which makes staying connected for everything much easier. They answer emails quickly, and use the patient portal to communicate with patients in the most efficient way. Wait times when you have any appointment are not bad at all. Every cycle for any treatment you are receiving is very organized and personalized depending on your needs.
Some weaknesses are: Depending on the reason for your visit, the wait time to get an appointment to see Dr. Hernandez-Rey may take more than a few weeks. But I believe if you explain your situation, they will be more than willing to work with you.
Describe your experience with your monitoring appointments at Conceptions Florida.
For monitoring appointments, it was based on what was most convenient to you as long as it was between specific hours since the lab pick up was at a certain time and results had to be given to the patient the same day.
Once you arrived for your appointment, the wait was very minimal. Sometimes there was no wait at all.
For all monitoring appointments this clinic is very well organized while at the same time being flexible with patients schedules.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Armando Hernandez-Rey at Conceptions Florida.
For my IVF cycle treatments, the cost varied around $9K - $12K. That did not include the cost of the medications needed for each cycle. The office manager and Dr. Hernandez-Rey were very fair when it came to pricing for each cycle. Since the last cycle I did and the future cycle I will be doing will be on my own, anything helps. This infertility journey besides it being a very emotional rollercoaster, it is also a big financial rollercoaster and stress.
Describe Armando Hernandez-Rey's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at Conceptions Florida.
In all my cycles, there was no need to decide how many embryos to transfer. Dr. Hernandez-Rey and his staff did speak to me before starting any cycle about how many embryos they recommend transferring depending on the women age, egg quality and embryo quality.
What specific things went wrong at Conceptions Florida?
- Provided conflicting information
Describe the specific things that went wrong at Conceptions Florida.
In my second treatment, which was my first IVF cycle, the nurse I had gave me some conflicting instructions when I had to be scheduled for a procedure to remove polyps from my uterus.
The problem was resolved quickly and the nurse was apologetic for her mistakes.