Fertility Center of the Carolinas

Dr. Likes has been great so far. He found my uterine septum and performed my septum resection surgery while making me feel hope that I would get through the secondary infertility battle. He has been kind and answered all of the questions I’ve had so far in a way that helps me to understand what’s going on.

Go in to the appointment with as much honesty as you can. That can steer the conversation and appointment. Dr. Likes made me feel comfortable answering any questions that he had.

I was on metformin and letrozole before Dr. Likes suspected I had a septate uterus. After the septum was found, I was put on birth control and the septum was respected via a hysteroscopy. I was then put on Estrogen and Progesterone. I now have a normal uterus, and I am again attempting conception with letrozole.

Expensive! My insurance doesn’t cover infertility and I had to have more than one ultrasound/bloodwork, etc. and it got pricey. Luckily my surgery was covered by insurance but still cost over $1000 out of pocket.

Dr. Green was very peppy and upbeat, she maintained a positive and encouraging -yet realistic attitude throughout my treatment. She explained things on a level my non-medical husband could understand, and was very thorough in laying out our options and odds of success for each pathway.

Write down questions before your visits. I always ended up sending another message to her full of questions I forgot to ask (which she patiently answered), but it would have been easier to ask in person during our visits.

Sperm motility was our main issue, after one failed IUI, we were able to move straight to IVF without having to go through a certain number of failed IUIs as I have heard others requiring...I am so thankful for that - from a money and emotional stand point. We chose to only implant one embryo at a time, for higher and safer odds, and though my baby was born prematurely - he was healthy and did not require a NICU stay. Our original plan was to do a fresh transfer, but I showed signs/developed ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome so we deferred to a frozen transfer to be safe.

For 1 round of IUI, and 1 round of IVF plus all medications my total cost out of pocket was probably $6-8k. Very lucky with my insurance.

Dr. Green recommended that we only transfer one embryo at a time, due to age and chance of splitting after implantation. She laid out all of the odds and risks associated with twin pregnancies (I also work in a NICU and was hyper-aware of these and did not want to take any chances). Ultimately she told us it was our decision but we agreed that we wanted to only implant one embryo at a time.

Dr. Likes is very knowledgeable and receptive to discuss issues with us in depth. But I do feel like you need to be your own advocate and make sure you are heard. Schedule appointments to discuss things with him (rather than the nurse). If you don’t have a positive test, schedule and appointment to discuss things. Make your own list of items to discuss and be your own patient advocate. Take notes of your appointment. They have a lot of patients but no one knows your case better than you do. Be your own advocate.

Be your own advocate.

First IVF - lupron, gonal-f, and menopour. We tried to do metformin beforehand so as to not have OHSS but it made me too sick. Second IVF - same protocol. Good results with both cycles in so far as eggs retrieved.

We had insurance coverage that after meeting your deductible, it was an 80/20 split with a $20,000 lifetime max. We are very fortunate.

First cycle we did a fresh transfer and transferred two. Second cycle we decided to transfer only one embryo.

Every time we see Dr. Likes, he sits beside us and talks to us like we are real people. He answers any questions with great detail. He understands I like to know every detail of the process and is very honest with me. He is good at giving us different sides to each treatment that way we can make an informed decision.

Bring any questions you have and write them down. Sometimes you can get off the track and forget. Also, he talks fast but just tell him to slow down!

I first started out on Femara and Ovidrel (trigger shot). We kept increasing the dose and checking my blood levels. We have done Gonal F injections, increasing those medications based on my follicle count. We starting doing a second HCG shot 1 week after the trigger shot to support my HCG levels and also adding progesterone suppositories.

My husband works at GHS, so I am on his insurance. Before we meet our deductible, ultrasounds are usually around $250, blood work is around $50, medications vary from $5-$100.

Dr. Greene was very outgoing and friendly but when it came to the medical terminology and explanations we felt that she took it all a little too quick. We wish that she would have slowed down to explain everything better for us.

Make sure that you are aware of all outcomes from your procedure and don't be afraid to ask questions... no matter how silly or repetitive.

The IVF nurses were the ones explaining protocol and treatment rounds to us.

I know that for our egg retrieval and FET, including medications we have spent about $17.500 out of pocket. We are waiting on an endometrial biopsy to figure out the next steps of our process. We have one frozen egg left to transfer and we will do that once all of our prior concerns and questions have been met.

Dr. Miller takes his time with us. That is important to me. I feel like he sees me as an individual and not just another patient bringing in money. He is sincere and supportive. I would highly recommend him to anyone seeking treatment for infertility.

Ask all of your questions. He will take the time to answer them. He cares, and he is supportive.

Dr. Miller first ran blood work where he found a low AMH. We were doing timed intercourse and Femara at the time. Once he saw the low number, he changed the course of treatment to a hormone therapy, which brought the AMH number up. We tried Femara and injections, but I had a modest response. He then took the time to meet with us and discuss our options. He gave us a couple of options, and we chose IVF. He then arranged for us to meet with their finance person in order to get an idea of cost. Based on a suspicion of endometriosis, we opted to do a laparoscopy to give Dr. Miller a chance to look around as well as to treat me for severe cramping during menstruation. He found two areas that were causing my pain. While I was in recovery, he took the time to speak with my family and answer all of their questions.

My insurance covers a majority of my costs. They have set up a meeting for my husband and I to talk to a financial person who took the time to explain how my insurance works and what it would cover. I really appreciated the information!!

No comment. We haven’t gotten to that point yet.

He is a very good and caring doctor! He is direct and forward with things! He makes sure to cover all areas, even other health concerns. Other doctors haven’t cared about that side of things. I have heart problems and he keeps up on the cardiology side of things. We are trying to plan for IVF and he has informed us of the steps and process thoroughly.

Be direct and be prepared that he will be direct and not sugar coat things. But we want a doctor, which means we want the straight forward answers.

Progesterone to force periods, Flemora, Gonal F, and HCG.... he tried using birth control before as well.

My insurance has covered a lot. We are about to do IVF and sadly our insurance will not cover any of that procedure and as anyone knows it is very expensive. We are having to put all of our saving into it and working hard at saving more to make this happen. Sad part is it makes it tight financially if we do get pregnant from this.

None

Dr. Green always has a great personality and she always seems happy. She was very patient with me, always answers all my questions and takes very good care of her patients. I thank God for Dr. Green and her love for her patients.

She is a great doctor and will make you feel very special. Fertility is a touch subject and Dr. Green was always happy and cheerful, no matter what.

Dr. Green removed both of my Fallopian tubes in November of 2017. I took hormone pills until May of 2018, when Dr. Green cleared me to start IVF. At that time, my husband and I did not have the money to start and we have been saving every since. We pray God will make a way for us to start a cycle of IVF soon, this year.

My insurance paid for my surgery, but everything else has been out of pocket. My husband and I are still saving for our first cycle of IVF and praying!!

We have not experienced this part yet.

I feel like she has been very proactive about my treatment plan despite being her patient for a shorter time frame. She has contacted me directly to discuss various matters without me having to always go through a nurse to communicate.

Fully explain to her how you are feeling and that she will listen to your concerns.

So far I have only done timed intercourse with oral and injectable medication. On day 11 of my cycle I come into the office for a follicle ultrasound to determine progress.

Office visits, medication costs, procedure costs like uterine biopsy, bloodwork, regular ultrasounds.

He seemed very caring and passionate about what he does. He made us feel at home and comfortable while going through treatments. He was always there to speak to when we needed to come in and catch up. He explained everything great.

That they can fully trust him!

His protocol for us after reviewing everything was fine was not to over do it. We did one IUI with Femara, Ovidrel and Gonal F shots, we tried just Femara, we done timed intercourse with the Femara and Ovidrel, then we would add Gonal F shots to those.

Ovidrel-$109 x2 per cycle Gonal F-$150 x2 per cycle Mid cycle follicle US-$290 Femara-$10 IUI-$323 Sperm analysis-$80 x2 One IUI, three just Femara, 4 includes shots.

Dr Likes was pretty straightforward. While I appreciate that, I would have appreciated some empathy as well. Also this office in general, the doctor included, wasn't exactly forthcoming with explaining each step, each phase, why things were happening, other options, etc. He was just sort of ok.

Don't expect any feeling/ empathy and don't expect to really understand what's happening.... just expect to roll with the steps they give you in your packet. And expect to do a lot of the legwork yourself.

I don't remember everything. I'm of advanced maternal age, and only have one functioning tube. In addition, years ago I had a huge fibroid cyst that broke through the wall of my uterus causing me to have an emergency myomectomy. I believe we just went thru a routine egg retrieval with normal medications, and two frozen transfers. Finally I decided to have my remaining 3 embryos PGS tested, and only 1 came out viable so we are in the process of getting ready to transfer the remaining one very soon.

Our experience with Dr Likes was great. I would recommend him to anyone. We didn’t get the results we wanted, of course, but we felt confident that Dr Likes did everything he could and even tried some unconventional measures. Our case was pretty rare.

Advocate for yourself, do you own research, and remember that doctors are just people. They don’t know everything, and you are the expert on your body.

We had 2 unexplained early miscarriages when we were referred to Dr Likes (8.5 weeks and 7 weeks). I was 24 and my husband was 23. He began by running a series of blood work for recurrent pregnancy loss. Checked AMH, thyroid levels, clotting issues, Karyotype, etc. and all blood work came back normal. He conducted an ultrasound to check for uterine abnormalities and found none. We tried medicated cycles (Femara) first because i always had irregular cycles. The theory was that if we could induce ovulation earlier, the egg quality may be better. We got pregnant and miscarried. This happened twice. We tried upping the medications (femara, gonal-f, and ovidrel) to time ovulation and timed intercourse. We had a few negative pregnancy tests, and then got pregnant again. This time the pregnancy was ectopic (left tube) and ended in emergency surgery where I lost my tube. We took a break and Dr likes recommended IVF with PGS. We always got pregnant easily, but the miscarriages were so early and spontaneous we didn’t know anything about the embryos. His theory was that our embryos weren’t good quality and expected to see that in PGS results. He wanted to try to get as many eggs as possible so we could hopefully find at least one PGS normal embryo. We did a freeze all cycle in January 2017 where we retrieved 20 eggs. 17 we’re mature and 16 fertilized. 10 embryos made it to day 5/6 blastocyst stage and 8 came back PGS normal after testing. We were all surprised by these results. We had an embryo transfer a couple months later and it was a chemical pregnancy. We tried another transfer 8 months later after I went on a gluten/dairy free diet (for possible inflammation). We did depot Lupron for 3 months prior to transfer to treat any endometriosis and “reset” my system. We did natural stimulation instead of synthetic (I actually ovulated, produced my own estrogen and progesterone, etc). The pregnancy was negative. At this point, dr Likes doesn’t have any ideas. We have considered treatment with a reproductive immunologist who specializes in recurrent pregnancy loss due to undiagnosed immunological issues.

I am not sure how my insurance factored in, but I know they billed things generically (not specifically fertility related) whenever they could to maximize my insurance coverage. I usually paid around $30-$100 for bloodwork (before meeting deductible), $100 for an ultrasound, $150 for consultation. For our IVF cycle, we paid around $5,000 out of pocket to schedule everything and insurance covered the rest. Our second FET was $1000 out of pocket.

Dr Likes preferred one, since it was known they were genetically normal before hand. He was open to two, though, if we had preferred.

Dr Miller goes out of his way to make sure he explains all treatments and options and that we feel comfortable with our plan of care. He is positive yet realistic. He listens to our concerns and makes sure he addresses them. It is apparent that Dr. Miller cares about his patients and does everything in his power to help patients start a family.

Trust his advice but don’t be afraid to ask questions.

We had insurance coverage for part of our treatment. Our IUI cost aprroximately $500. The remaining balance for IVF was around $5,000 and $3,000 for medication. Due to being unable to do a fresh cycle due to issues with my lining being too thin we had to freeze our eggs which resulted in extra and unexpected costs. Eventually we ran out of money in the middle of a cycle and we had to pay an additional $1800 that was discounted.

Dr. Miller always suggested we transfer 2 embryos to increase our chance of success. He is always open to patients opinions and never pushed us to do anything we were uncomfortable with.

Initially, Dr. Miller was not as aggressive as I was hoping he would be. We had relocated to Greenville from Los Angeles and my doctor in Los Angeles was extremely aggressive with treatment. It took a few cycles but Dr. Miller did eventually get on board with a very aggressive treatment plan.

Trust him! He knows what he’s doing.

Our first protocol was an IUI cycle with femara and Follistim combined. I only got one follicle that cycle but ended up having a chemical pregnancy. Our second IUI cycle was all follistim and I had 4 follicles. We used an all injectable cycle because that is what worked having my older son. Unfortunately, this round didn’t work. We took a break to save some more money and I lost some more weight then we had a spontaneous natural pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. I had a laparoscopy done to clean out any endometriosis and scar tissue and we are planning to start back to IUI soon!

The cost with Dr. Miller was significantly more than it was having my son in California only because we did not have insurance coverage. Every baseline ultrasound or follicle check was around $300, IUI was around $300, and the sperm wash with around $80.

Dr. Likes has taken us in more as family than patients. He sits with us and answers every single question and concern we have. We've been on this journey for two years with one loss at the very beginning. He understands this and his number one priority is myself and my husband and getting us to a healthy pregnancy!

Don't hold anything back. Not emotions, questions, concerns, any of it. He can and wants to handle this for you and with you!

I don't ovulate regularly. We have gone from Chlomid, to Femara and then Femara with IUI. Each cycle seems to be getting better and better. We also do ultrasounds each cycle. I get to see my follicles and now I know exactly what they are measuring simply by viewing the screen during the ultrasound.

We do not have fertility coverage through insurance so this has all been out of pocket. Last month alone was $1,017. Each month is it upwards of at LEAST $500.

Dr. Forstein was easy to talk to and listened to me. He changed the protocol after the first failed round. Dr. Forstein came up with another idea to try before a third round of IVF. He showed compassion when he was unable to find a reason for our infertility.

Your time with the doctor will be limited. Try to come up with all questions ahead of time. Most questions will be answered by the nurse especially if you email.

I took Lupron shots every morning. I took Menopur and Gonal-F at night. The first round I had a shot that resembled the HCG shots. The second round I had the official HCG shot. The second round of IVF required me to take a medicine used to treat PCOS even though I do not have PCOS or any signs of it. I had to watch all my sugars on that medication or I became sick. He kept the protocol pretty much the same from the first one to the second one because he felt the first round didn't produce good egg quality so he just tried to increase my egg quality for the second round. Both rounds produced several eggs, most which died over night, with only two making it to the third day each cycle.

It cost $15,000 before insurance each round. The second round was more expensive since insurance ran out.

He transferred two embryos each time because that is all that survived.

Dr. Miller was a great doctor. He listened to all of my concerns and answered any questions I had. He is very smart and seems to love what he does. Dr. Miller came into the waiting room and walked me back for my first appointment. He described what PCOS is and some of the treatment plans. We talked about weight loss, but he wasn't rude about it. He went about it in a caring way and offered helpful advice. I was always aware of what to expect at each appointment. Dr. Miller is very informative. My insurance changed at work, and I no longer have the funds to seek fertility treatment at this time. I would love to return some time in the future. I highly recommend Dr. Miller. He is absolutely one of the best doctors I've ever met.

If you have any questions, do not be afraid to ask him. Dr. Miller is very informative and has a passion for his work.

I was placed on Metformin twice daily along with prenatal vitamins. I had ultrasound on Cycle Day 3. I took Femara Cycle days 3-7. I had one failed IUI.

I only had the chance to meet with Dr Lessey twice during my time trying to conceive. I did meet with him during every visit once I had conceived, and I felt so thankful to him for the pregnancy that resulted from his treatment.

I have heard he is retiring. He is a wonderful doctor, but if he has retired by the time you read these, please do check out the other doctors at FCC. The staff in general are really wonderful.

I had done fertility meds (Clomid) with an OB. Dr Lessey helped show me that Clomid was thinning my lining and making pregnancy unlikely. He switched me to Femara and then to Femara plus Ovidrel, both with timed intercourse. I got pregnant on my third round of Femara plus Ovidrel.

Many of my treatments were covered under insurance.

Dr Lessey requested I abstain from a cycle when I had 4 mature follicles. He indicated that the risk for multiples was too high.

Dr. Forstein offered us hope we had not felt in a long time by his willingness to listen. Just the act of sitting down with both of us for several hours on our initial visit made us feel we could trust him. He had answers for all of our questions and made sure we understood before moving on to the next question. He didn't ignore any concerns we had. He made sure to personally connect with me every single visit unless it was a blood draw. If I had a question for a nurse over the phone it was common for Dr. Forstien to call me back personally to address my questions.

Here are some of the bills I was able to pull up from the year 2015:very 5/20 office visit $140 5/20 blood work $13 5/20 general health panel $113 5/20 prolactin $94 5/20 tstosterone fr $99 5/20 hgb glycosylated $50 6/9 blood draw $13 6/9 Projesterone test $94 6/26 office visit $398.09 6/26 Smr prim src wet mount $20 6/26 dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate $103 6/26 prolactin $94 6/26 blood draw $13 7/07 office visit $140 7/13 labratory specimen $254.20 7/06 ? $75.82 7/07 office visit $140 7/31 Blood draw $13 7/31 Assay of projesterone $94 7/31 Blood work $13 11/19 hgc blood test $32 11/19 blood draw $11

Dr likes really cares about his patients as individuals as well as patients. He listens to you and delivers hard news in a compassionate and caring manner. He always has a smile and is very encouraging

Do research on the medications before and be fully informed about all side effects and purposes.

After much consultation, we used femara and iui and got pregnant on the first time. My menstrual cycle was longer than normal (36 days) and my husband had issues with mobility and morphology. We now have a beautiful smart and kind 4 yr old little girl!

Besides co-pays, I think our iui charge was about $500 that was it.

Dr Likes is very likeable. He has been honest with me even when the news is disappointing, and he has been kind and funny during our visits. Out of the two doctors I have seen at FCC, he has been my favorite.

Good luck! Dr Likes is a great doctor and I hope you find what you are looking for at FCC.

Dr Likes has increased my protocol several times. I started with just Femara plus Ovidrel, which worked for me previously. He eventually increased me to Femara plus Gonal F plus Ovidrel. He has changed my dosage of Femara and Gonla F twice.

Many of my visits were covered by Tricare as diagnostic.

I felt that Dr Likes made reasonable increases to my medication to ensure a better response without risking multiples.

Dr. Likes is an amazing doctor! I feel completely comfortable and at ease when talking with him about our future plans. He is always willing to listen and hear my concerns as well as answer any questions no matter how simple.

Go into your appointment knowing that Dr. Likes truly cares about his patients! He goes into great detail about how they do things and what to expect. He is willing to take treatments as quickly or slowly as you want. He is simply the best!

We started with just Femara and then slowly added a trigger shot and then added another shot before the trigger shot. After a few months of no results, we decided to try an IUI. After this failed, we decided to take a break and he was fully supportive!

All doctors appointments and treatments are expensive, but they tell you all costs up front if possible

He is very kind, patient, and compassionate. You can tell he is passionate about what he does. He is always very present, takes his time with us, and is very personable. He is one of my favorites to work with for sure and I always leave feeling very calm after working with him.

None, he is great! Keep doing what he is doing!

Dr. Miller has only performed a few of my IUIs. Most of my treatment protocols were done with Dr. Lessey or Dr. Green. Dr. Miller is very gentle, calm, and reassuring.

OVerall the last two years at the fertility centers, we have spent close to $20k out of pocket and still not pregnant.