Dr Likes genuinely showed care, concern, and compassion. He treated us with dignity and respect, listened to our concerns, answered our questions, and was open to our recommendations.... We had 2 unexplained early miscarriages when we were referred to Dr Likes... 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.
They [Fertility Center of the Carolinas] were great. One of my nurses gave me her personal cell number and texted to check in on me frequently during my second ectopic pregnancy.... I don’t love the communication messaging system. And I wish the doctor would see the patients every visit. It can be challenging to reach the physicians directly- most communication goes through the nurses.
How was your experience with Creighton Likes at Fertility Center of the Carolinas ?
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.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Creighton Likes at Fertility Center of the Carolinas ?
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.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Creighton Likes at Fertility Center of the Carolinas ?
Dr Likes genuinely showed care, concern, and compassion. He treated us with dignity and respect, listened to our concerns, answered our questions, and was open to our recommendations.
Describe the protocols Creighton Likes used in your cycles at Fertility Center of the Carolinas and their degree of success.
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.
Describe your experience with your nurse at Fertility Center of the Carolinas . (Assigned nurse: Susan, and Alice)
They were great. One of my nurses gave me her personal cell number and texted to check in on me frequently during my second ectopic pregnancy.
Describe your experience with Fertility Center of the Carolinas .
I don’t love the communication messaging system. And I wish the doctor would see the patients every visit. It can be challenging to reach the physicians directly- most communication goes through the nurses.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Creighton Likes at Fertility Center of the Carolinas .
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.
Describe Creighton Likes's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at Fertility Center of the Carolinas .
Dr Likes preferred one, since it was known they were genetically normal before hand. He was open to two, though, if we had preferred.
What specific things went wrong at Fertility Center of the Carolinas ?
- Failed to call in prescriptions to pharmacy
Describe the specific things that went wrong at Fertility Center of the Carolinas .
It wasn't a big deal, but there was a time when the prescription I needed wasn't called in immediately. Once they became aware, they made it right immediately and ensured I got the medication I needed on time.
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Clinic
Fertility Center of the Carolinas
Greenville
