Fertility Centers of Illinois

I believe that Dr. Hirshfeld is well informed and I trusted her care. I wouldn't characterize her as a "warm" person, but rather she is straight to the point which for me was totally fine. I appreciated her direct answers, but I could see how some other women might need a warmer experience especially during such a trying moment in their lives.

If you are looking for a no-nonsense, fact based experience that gets results and don't need someone who is warm and fuzzy to deliver the good and bad news, Dr. Hirshfeld is a good option.

I had diminished ovarian reserve and my husband had some motility issues. Dr. Hirshfeld prescribed some vitamins including Vitamin D and CoQ10 for each of us. I was prescribed Letrozole for 5 days, then after an ultrasound confirming I had a viable follicle I used the Ovidrel trigger shot and then took Prometrium every evening following. We had one unsuccessful IUI, but we got pregnant on the second try. I used Prometrium every evening until I was 9 weeks. I am now 16 weeks pregnant.

My insurance is pretty good so much of my costs were covered. I think I only paid for the ultrasounds and the prescriptions. All in all, with two rounds of IUI I think we spent around $500. After the first unsuccessful IUI I did more research on IVF and that would have been considerably more, in the range of $5K-$8K, due mostly to the prescription drugs.

Dr. Hirshfeld always clearly and patiently explained procedures, risks, and even drew diagrams to illustrate her explanations. She always gave me plenty of time to consider whether I had questions. She talked over options like genetic testing - which we almost didn't do- in the way that a friend who had been through this experience would explain it. She never talked down to me, just spoke plainly and clearly. She didn't sugar coat anything, and also managed to be comforting and encouraging without making false promises about success. I had a terrible scare with a bleed about 2 weeks after my positive pregnancy test (post FET); I had the doctor paged and she immediately called me, listened to my fear that I was miscarrying, and reassured me that she believed the bleeding could have another cause- again, without promising anything. She turned out to be right, I was not having a miscarriage, and everyone was so compassionate towards me in that situation. She has called me from her personal cell phone to check on me. She is a kind, consummate medical professional.

Ask as many questions as you may have, because she is totally willing to take the time to answer them. She is extremely compassionate and knowledgeable.

Dr. Hirshfeld was aware that I had been a strong responder to Gonal-F in my previous IUI cycles at another clinic. I had cycles cancelled due to this issue. So her approach to my first IVF cycle was conservative in this regard, and as we went forward, she adjusted the medication up and down as needed. She was also trying to spare me the pain of OHSS since I was higher risk for that. At the same time, she wanted to get the most eggs since, given my age, there was a high likelihood that many of them would not develop to become embryos. Right before the egg retrieval, in order to get the most eggs possible, she prescribed another, second trigger medication which would allow the few remaining eggs that were right on the cusp of being mature enough to develop in time for the retrieval- without increasing my chances of developing OHSS. This strategy worked perfectly, as they were able to retrieve 25 eggs, with 20 fertilizing, 14 becoming embryos, and 4 of them making it to the day 5 embryo stage. We opted for PGS testing. Of these 4, two were normal, 1 was undetermined (needing to be re-biopsied) and 1 was abnormal. Dr. Hirshfeld counseled us to transfer 1 embryo, explained the success rates, and also explained our options for retesting the undetermined embryo. I did have some bloating after the retrieval, but I did not develop OHSS and Dr. Hirshfeld was very helpful in advising me on how to care for myself and decrease the bloating afterwards. I was put on estrogen and birth control to prepare for the frozen transfer, and one embryo (the best available, as we chose not to know gender at that time), was transferred. Recovery was fairly easy, lots of rest and 10 days later I had a positive pregnancy test at the lab.

It was a specific time window, and I would choose a specific time to arrive. I was able to bring my 3 year old daughter and the staff was very accommodating. Easy to schedule and felt very efficient. I never waited past my appointment time.

We had to meet our deductible and out of pocket max, and with the high cost of the medications, this happened very quickly. Our out of pocket max was $6000. FCI required a deposit of $1500 to begin treatment and this was applied towards this amount. Insurance covered 100% of everything after that- ultrasounds, visits, labs, additional medications. We also opted for PGS testing of the embryos, and we paid for this entirely out of pocket as it was not covered by insurance. I believe the cost of that was approximately $4200. We also paid $500 to freeze our embryos for 1 year, also out of pocket.

She advised one embryo since she was very much trying to reduce the possibility of a twin or higher order pregnancy. This was extremely important to my husband and I, since a twin pregnancy was NOT what we wanted. Given that we opted to do PGS, she explained that the odds of a singleton pregnancy were not helped by putting in two genetically tested embryos. If we had decided not to genetic test, she would have considered transferring two embryos but this is not what we wanted to do, so her recommendation of PGS testing and a single embryo transfer is exactly what we decided to do.

Dr. Juan Alvarez is great. He is very caring and compassionate and you can tell that he loves what he does. He is very thorough and makes sure that you are aware and understand all of the steps involved in the process. He is very positive and upbeat and made me feel super comfortable with both of my transfers. Our first FET resulted in a blighted ovum. I was devastated and in tears. He had me come into his office to explain what exactly a blighted ovum was and assured me that it was nothing that I did. Hearing that made me feel a little better because it’s so hard not to blame yourself. He asked if he could give me a hug and did so. You definitely do not feel like just a “number” when in his care. I highly recommend him.

That he is very knowledgeable and has your outcome in his best interest. His goal is to help you achieve your dream of having a family.

I did two FET’s with Dr. Alvarez. My fresh cycle that resulted with my twins was done under the care of Dr. Hirschfield whom transferred to another location. My first cycle with Dr. Alvarez I was on oral estrace, baby aspirin, POI and medrol and doxycycline a few days before transfer. My lining wasn’t thickening in the beginning so he had me insert the estrace vaginally for a few days which did the trick. My progesterone was also increased once I had a positive pregnancy test because it was low. He also added oral progesterone as well. That cycle ended in a blighted ovum. Second cycle I was on the same protocol but he made sure to check my progesterone level the day of my transfer and a week later. I was taking oral progesterone and an increased dosage of POI shots as well. Everything else was the same.

Out of Pocket (insurance doesn’t cover fertility treatment) Saline Sonogram $450 FET: $3500 x 2 = $7000 Meds: $150 x 2 = $300 Consultation: $225 Total: $7975

Dr. Alvarez would only let me transfer one embryo at a time since we already had twins. He said that we had a higher chance of that happening again and that twin pregnancies pose a higher risk. We were okay with this since we already have our twins.

Perhaps my opinion is schewed by the fact that both my wife and have each worked with Dr. Hirshfeld to try to get pregnant, and we have not yet gotten a healthy embryo to implant, but I often felt like I was a lower priority than my wife because my probability of producing healthy eggs was lower. This would manifest in time spent focused on my options during a consultation and how quickly she recommended moving on to only my wife attempting egg retrieval. However, at a recent appoint in the last 6 months, I felt like she started to "click" with us a bit better and really understood that my wife and I are both going through the fertility treatments as patients who might both conceive and not just a carrier and supporter. We have been seeing Dr. H for nearly 3 years and will stick with her through the remaining pursuit to have a baby. Despite some of the concerns I had about her interest in my fertility options (as opposed to my wife's), I trust her judgement and appreciate her compassionate approach to the ups and downs of the last couple of years. She also always took the time to explain the processes in great detail, in terms we could understand, was honest about the percentages of success for most procedures and took the time to answer questions.

Make sure she understands your family dynamic and that you ask questions if you feel unsure that all options have been explored or offered.

I started an egg retrieval cycle following standard diagnostic tests and consultation. IUI was not an option because of a blocked tube. My bloodwork and ultrasounds revealed that my estrogen levels were very low and only 1 follicle per ovary reacted to the drugs. Per this info, Dr. H said we could not go through with the egg retrieval. We are now working to use an egg donor, and I have completed a new round of ultrasounds and bloodwork to prep for this process. I am now on birth control pills to regulate my cycle while determine the egg donor and associated paperwork.

We are lucky that we have insurance that covers some of the costs associated with fertility, but only to a point and for so many attempts. I feel that the cost most glaring was tied to the storage of sperm and/or embryos. That was a significant cost for us during this process and it is not covered by insurance. This is especially difficult to get a large bill like that following an egg retrieval that results in abnormal embryos that need to be destroyed (or used in research). Long-term storage of embryos or sperm seems reasonable, but short-term storage while viability is determined seems unfair.

No comments as it is not relevant to my treatment to date.

My husband and I came to Dr. Hirshfeld after 9 months of TTC. In the past, I have felt dismissed by doctors regarding my infertility concerns, many of them believing that we had nothing to worry about because we were young and had been trying for less than a year. However, Dr. Hirshfeld took our concerns seriously and wanted to do everything possible to find answers. She took a very detailed history of both of us and explained our next steps. When we discovered that the reason we were not conceiving was azoospermia, she immediately referred us to an incredible urologist, who ended up performing a sperm retrieval operation. From there, Dr. Hirshfeld recommended we go straight to IVF and went over every detail of the process. The only thing I feel wasn't fully communicated was the possibility that our fertilization results may be lower than average due to my husband's azoospermia. So when we got a very disappointing fertilization report following a successful egg retrieval, we were shocked and very upset. After our first cycle ended with no viable embryos, we met with Dr. Hirshfeld to go over what happened and how to move forward. Before we could go into how disappointed we were about the failed cycle and the dozens of questions we had, Dr. Hirshfeld stated that she knew this was not the result we were hoping for but that there were concrete things we could do differently to get a better result next cycle. She explained that low fertilization is common following a sperm retrieval and was honest about that not being something we could change. However, she could make changes to my medication protocol in hopes of obtaining more mature eggs to fertilize. She also recommended a fresh transfer instead of the frozen transfer we originally planned to do. She explained that the clinic had seen higher success rates with fresh transfers and the possible reasons for this, but stated that the decision was of course ultimately up to us. She answered many of the questions we had before we even asked them, and remained very hopeful despite the disappointing results of our first cycle. She answered the remaining questions we had very clearly and thoughtfully and we left feeling very hopeful about our next IVF cycle. Dr. Hirshfeld is extremely intelligent and always takes the time during appointments to go over everything. She is positive and optimistic, while also being honest about the situation and chances of success. She also remembers details about our personal lives, like what we do for work, and always asks us how things are going, making us feel like more than just a number.

Ask any and all questions you have. Dr. Hirshfeld always takes the time to give very clear and thoughtful answers. While she is very kind, don't expect a lot of hand holding. Her intelligence and thoroughness is what makes her comforting, not hand holding.

Dr. Hirshfeld put me on the most basic protocol, since all of my initial bloodwork and ultrasounds looked good. However, during stimulation, my left ovary was much more active than my right, which struggled to keep up. She kept me at a pretty low dose of medications since my left ovary was responding well and I had a good number of follicles. But my follicles grew at different rates, leaving only a small number within the preferred range. So while they were able to retrieve 17 eggs, only 8 of those were mature and because of my husband's azoospermia, only 3 fertilized. On day 5 we only had 1 blastocyst and unfortunately it was genetically abnormal so we did not do a transfer. Dr. Hirshfeld plans on changing my protocol next cycle so that my follicles grow more evenly and we get a higher number of mature eggs. She is adding birth control and Lupron to accomplish this, which I did not take during my first cycle. The way she described it, there are different types of protocols, and they can choose one based on initial tests but they don't really know which is the best for you until you do a complete round and see the results. Now that we saw how I responded the first time around, she can better choose a protocol to give us better results. This is exactly why they say IVF is the most expensive science experiment!

The monitoring appointments are very efficient and convenient. The appointments are usually in the morning, with times early enough so that it didn't interfere with my work schedule (I believe they start as early as 6:15 but I usually went in between 7 and 8). They were typically very quick, with the exception of one very busy Sunday where I waited longer than normal. All of the ultrasound techs and nurses are fantastic and very friendly.

Our insurance covered egg retrieval, fertilization, and transfer. We paid out of pocket for embryo biopsy ($1200), genetic testing ($300 for one embryo), embryo freezing ($1500), medications ($5000) and storage of my husband's sperm from his retrieval ($500 per year). We also paid smaller bills here and there for bloodwork and ultrasounds, a few hundred dollars approximately.

Dr. Hirshfeld said that they prefer to do single embryo transfers unless the female is over a certain age or has recurrent pregnancy loss. We do not fall into these categories and prefer single embryo transfers ourselves so we did not push for more information.

In person he was friendly and charismatic. But I hardly ever dealt with him. I felt I was just being told what I wanted to hear. At first I liked him but the more I wanted to ask questions or get a hold of him it was always pushed off to his nurses. And then they never knew our history. He sounded so promising but I felt like he just said the same things to everyone.

If you want to feel like just a number and feel like you’re just another women going through a “routine” procedure then this is for you. Nothing seemed to be personalized to your needs.

We wanted to try several IUI’s before we spend so much of our own money on IVF but he said it wouldn’t work for us. So we only did one. I reacted really well to the drugs for egg retrieval and they said it all looked normal. I don’t remember the specifics here. But I got a lot of eggs. But not very matured enough eggs.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

It was a lot. We spent over 25k.

Okay. So they never let me know the grade of my embryos. I didn’t even know there was a grade till I met with my new doctor. So we did the first transfer and he recommended just one. Even though later I found out the grade wasn’t great. So the chances of positive pregnancy was a very low percentage. I knew none of this. I would do multiple every time if I couldn’t do PGS testing.

Dr. Rodgers was very willing to work within our unique requests. We were very cautious in how many embryos we created and how high of dose of drugs I was on. She explained everything very knowledgeable and was very understanding and kind to work with us with much compassion. And we got two healthy pregnancies with her.

Go to her! She's great!

We did Clomid once, IUI twice, then IVF once and got our first pregnancy. Our second pregnancy was after two negative IVF rounds. She was very helpful with how to modify my drugs and protocol due to how I was reacting to the Progesterone in Oil.

Great! the staff was so helpful

Depended on what our insurance was like that year! Clomid and IUI were self pay- cost sent to us were fussy. Thankfully it ended up being less than we expected. IVF in 2017 was very manageable because we had good insurance. 2019 it was very tricky since we had a different insurance plan that had a lifetime allowance on IVF procedure and IVF drugs. Our billing person forgot to send into insurance our request for coverage one round, but thankfully got it in right before we began. It was very stressful and frustrating process. But, Dr. Rodgers and our nurse Amber did all they could on their end to push it forward with their billing person.

Dr. Sipe is warm but also doesn’t sugar coat anything. I appreciate the fact that he doesn’t pump you up with false hope either. He was very clear about the odds of IUI. With each cycle he changed the medication dosages to help increase follicle size. I always feel like we are moving forward, not just trying the same thing over & over again. Iui did not work for us, so we will be moving on to IVF, sticking with Dr. Sipe. He is wonderful.

You will mainly be communicating with him via his nurse. She is the one who will call with results.

IUI #1- 50mg clomid day 3-5, only 1 mature follicle. Trigger shot and then IUI 12h past the trigger. IUI #2- 100mg clomid day 3-5. 2 mature follicles, trigger and IUI 16h past. IUI #3- 150mg clomid day 3-5. 4 mature follicles. Trigger and IUI 16h past.

Roughly $1000-1500 per IUI cycle. I did have to have multiple ultrasounds each time though.

Dr. Rapisarda was very kind and compassionate. He listened, but he did not give me enough details on my treatment. On my first IVF cycle, the dr. nor the nurses showed me how to do my injectable meds. I had multiple cancelled FET's due to thin lining, and not one time did I receive a call from the doctor. Only from the nurse, who always gave me the feeling that I was bothering her. We tried ~5 separate times for an FET and the doctor barely made any changes to my protocal that clearly was not working.

Be your own best advocate. Document everything.

Monitoring was a well-oiled machine, but sometimes long wait times. There were at least 30 people waiting for monitoring each time I went.

My insurance covered most costs. Out of pocket for ERA test, genetic testing, embryo storage

I wish I had gotten to meet with him more frequently, but I always felt extremely confident he knew what he was doing and was putting me on the best possible course of treatment to ensure success. My only complaint would be the limited windows of time he was available each month for procedures, causing longer wait times (~2 months) between cycles than I would have liked. I wish this schedule had been slightly more flexible, but realize this is how they are able to treat so many patients.

If there’s anything you want to ask or make sure he knows about you, be upfront so you can use the time with him most efficiently.

Used ganirelix and menopur for retrieval cycle and Luprolide (sp?) for the trigger shot. Due to number of eggs retrieved, froze all embryos rather than doing transfer right away to increase chances of success. Used Estradiol tablets for the first frozen transfer, then after that didn’t work, switched to patches for the second frozen transfer, which worked.

The only part of my treatment not covered by insurance was a $300 admin fee, and I was able to appeal to get this covered under my insurance plan.

Because of my age (31), no prior history of issues or known risk factors, and the fact that a pregnancy with multiples is considered risky, Dr. Kaplan recommended transferring only 1 for at least the first two cycles.

Dr. Rodgers is always willing to answer our questions. She never acts like we are bothering her by asking questions. I wanted to try a different medication and she was open to discussing that option with me.

Go into an appointment with your questions written down. She doesn't rush you and will answer all your questions, but she sometimes talks fast. For me, it was easy to get sidetracked while in our meetings. Writing everything down kept me on track during our meetings and made sure all my questions were answered.

My first cycle was clomid. My next two cycles were letrozole. We switched from clomid to letrozole per my request. We are currently moving on to IUI.

I have insurance so it's just been my normal deductible for now until I reach my limit.

She’s ok. I am irritated by the disingenuous way she always says “I’ll be with you every step of the way” and “let’s make you a baby.” It felt canned and ridiculous after a year of failure. She acted like she was always looking at my chart for the first time. I wish she had spent more time on my treatment plans.

Dont expect the nurse to help you. You have to advocate for yourself, do your own research, and count your medications every day.

For my IUIs, she had me on Letrozole (varying the amounts) and Ovidrel trigger, with Crinone, PIO, or Endometrin. For my IVF, she started me on a very conservative dose of Gonal-f, Menopur, and Ganirelix. It resulted in a much smaller number of eggs than I was hoping for and I was unhappy that she didn’t increase my dosage sooner.

IVF was about $13,000. Genetic testing of embryos was $4,000 at the clinic plus $2,500 at RGI.

Dr Nani gave my husband and I hope. We came to her From previous fertility Dr that just was harsh and unsympathetic of the situation. Dr Nani threw all that the previous Dr said out the window and said we will make it happen. That approach gave my husband and I faith. Now even though our multiple treatments with iui did not work, I still felt comfortable with the Dr. Through each cycle I did wish there was more time with the Dr. It wasn't enough interaction and discussion of the treatment plan as I thought it would be. Especially with coming in thinking that we had male factor infertility that turned into unexplained, I would have preferred to have more discussion with the Dr directly.

If you are looking for Dr Nani to talk with you or perform the small procedures like iui then this will not be the one you want to see. If you want a DR that will try and give you good bed side manner she is great. If you don't have the ability to pay for treatment the Dr does try to do what she can to give a discount where possible if insurance doesn't cover. There are some benefits of support that the Dr will give if she has meds on hand. Not a bad experience but not an amazing one since we did not conceive.

The sperm had volume but the motility and morphology were quite low. Overall after sperm washing the amount for iui was not enough or in the most ideal preferred amount. Dr started with non Medicated cycle first because of no female impact and completed iui and used trigger shot. Negative result moved to clomid in 2nd cycle. Follicles took longer to grow in a monitored cycle but once achieved at least 1 semi follicle that was off preferred size around 12mm Dr made us trigger and we performed iui with a negative result. 3rd cycle we started with injectable gonadotropins. Thankfully Dr had these to help in the cycle cost that we could not get insurance to cover. While doing injections and monitoring we still did not see the follicles grow to a highly desired size like the first and we did trigger with follicles at around 16mm. In this cycle I myself had to request a back to back iui to try and strengthened our chances with getting the most sperm we could to where it needed to be. 3rd attempt unfortunately failed and we stopped because there was no further discussion with the Dr. About moving to another route besides adding another iui cycle and the cost to us could almost equate to an entire IVF cycle when we have to pay out of pocket for everything.

Each iui cycle depended on how much minority was needed and what meds were used. First cycle was about $800 natural no meds ,2nd cycle was about,$900 Ned's were used clomid and monitoribg and 3rd was,$1200 injections lots if monitoring and 2iuis back to back.

This was not completed.

She listened to our reasons as to why we were there and our concerns about my husband being the carrier of a muscular disease. She gave us time to talk and explained everything thoroughly. I did not feel rushed or belittled by her.

She is a fast talker so you have to keep up!

In our case my husband is the carrier of a genetic muscular disease that is rather debilitating (he lives with it everyday) He did not want to pass it to his children which is why we sought out Dr. Nani. I saw she had articles posted on genetic testing which is why I chose her. She fully explained only he has to be the carrier - it does not matter if I am a carrier so long as he is and it would be a 50/50 chance. She fully explained the process of how the genetic testing process would go. She did thorough testing of me and my husband and determined we are both healthy and great candidates for IVF.

I only had to pay my co-pay for office visits and my insurance covered all my pre-testing. As for the IVF process the cost for one cycle with genetic testing is around 26,000$

The doctor is wonderful, she is very kind and easy to talk too. She always explains each step in detail and is quick to answer all my questions. She preformed my embryo transfer and also did the IUI, but did not do the egg retrieval. I like her as a person and as a doctor and feel very comfortable speaking to her about my situation and asking her questions.

Ask to speak directly to her when they call you. As I stated earlier the nurses handle the majority of the phone calls and regular visits which I understand, but she seemed much more compassionate and involved then the nurses, and I think asking to speak with her directly would make a patient feel more comfortable and confident with whats happening.

I started this process with medication and trying timed intercourse which did not work. We then moved onto one IUI cycle which also failed, and the doctor recommended moving right to IVF because IUI's didn't seem very likely to work with my situation (I have PCOS). I then started the IVF cycle and had the retrieval done and we got 17 eggs, 6 of which turned into embryos. I had a fresh transfer done which unfortunately failed as well. I have had 2 cancelled IVF transfers now one due to a change in insurance and the second one cancelled because my body quit responding to the medication and my lining wasn't thick enough. After that I went back in and had a consultation with the doctor and we are going to try a different medication protocol using only injectables and then doing the frozen transfer.

I've spent about $5,000 so far. I don't know an exact amount.

For my situation my doctor has so far recommended only transferring one embryo at a time. She told me I have a very high risk of conceiving multiples and she wanted to cut down on that as it can be dangerous for myself and the babies. If this next frozen transfer does not work I will have some tests done and then we will discuss transferring 2 embryos.

Dr. Ahmad is extremely professional and intelligent, but is able to educate regarding the details of the entire fertility process. She explains plan of care in a way that is well understood while providing options to those who might be limited due to financial constraints. She truly wants you to succeed in your outcomes while providing realistic expectations.

If overwhelmed, feel free to write down questions in advance so you are able to discuss them during your meeting with Dr. Ahmad

Underwent three failed IUIs, with the one first one in the downtown office and the final two at my home office in Warrenville. After this, I underwent an egg retrieval that resulted in a freeze all due to high estrogen levels because of PCOS. Dr. Ahmad wanted to wait before an embryo transfer due to the risk of OHSS. Underwent a frozen 5 day embryo transfer using Lupron protocol, which resulted in failed IVF #1. After that, underwent a 2nd frozen 5 day embryo transfer following estrogen protocol which resulted in a positive pregnancy test.

Dr. Ahmad recommended single embryo transfers due to my age and infertility cause.

Dr Alvarez is very kind and understanding. I needed a polyp removed and my regular obgyn did not want to do it. Since I felt comfortable with Dr Alvarez he made all the arrangements to perform the procedure on me. When our 2 cycles of IUI did not work, we had another consultation to discuss our options. He suggested either conventional IVF or clinical trial IVF. I felt like we were given options and he did not push any particular one at us throughout the course of the treatment. He answered all my questions, no matter how minor they were. He was very kind , and patient oriented. I understand that not every result is pregnancy, but even during the negative results for us, I felt how compassionate he was.

This whole process is an emotional roller coaster. Things don't move in a time frame that one may expect. You have to remember that Dr Alvarez takes over your natural body process, but somethings he cant even speed up.

We did 2 cycles of IUI, with higher dosages of clomid - and both came back of negative pregnancy test. When it come to IVF , I was on higher dose of injections to obtain the desire results. We only had one embryo transferred since Dr Alvarez stated that due to my age this gives me highest chances of pregnancy. he also recommended ICSI since we had failed IUI. After IVF i was placed on higher dose of progesterone IM and oral , since my body had low production.

I dont remember

Dr. Hirshfeld is available to meet with patients when they specifically ask or when treatment needs to be reviewed. I felt that she always was 100% focused on me when I met with her, which is a relief because every doctor obviously has so many patients. She remembered all the details of what was going on with me and my husband and proved to be extremely knowledgeable and helpful at all times. We were so disappointed after a first failed IVF round, and she is extremely practical in her approach to solutions and recommendations for next steps, we always felt safe even though the road was hard. I truly cannot say enough good things about her.

Dr. Hirshfeld gets to the point when you meet with her. I found this refreshing during a process where everything seems uncertain (and it is!). Don't be afraid to send her an email with simple questions. The simpler it is, the easier it is for her to get back to you and it can make you feel so much better. It is always super frustrating to have to wait until your appointment to have face-to-face communications and some more complicated questions answered, but that's all part of the process. Know that when you do meet with her she is totally committed to your cause.

We did two rounds of IVF. The first round was not very successful, I am young so it was a shock to get so few embryos of very low quality. I decided to do a second round to get more embryos before implanting any of them. Dr. Hirshfeld guided me on my choices, but really the choice was mine and she was supportive of doing another round. I also was honest about non-medical issues, like financial concerns and our current insurance plan that we knew would not last forever, so she kept all factors in mind when considering when and how to do our next treatments. This was all really important to us. The second round of IVF she did differently from the first. We had higher quality embryos, which could have been the treatment or just the luck of the draw.

It was covered by insurance, but I'm pretty sure each round of IVF is close to $20K.

Because of my age and our circumstances, Dr. Hirsheld recommended single embryo transfer. Everybody is different.

Will not take responsibility for negligent care even when confronted. She tries to multitask instead of paying attention to her patient. She has ordered incorrect medication for me more than once. She tries to fit each patient into a predetermined course of action instead of making a plan of action based off of the patient. She defended her nurses when they were clearly in the wrong on multiple occasions. She was sarcastic and completely tuned out during our face to face visits.

Run!

She prescribed me solely endometrin and my progesterone level did not rise because my body did not absorb it. She questioned if I was inserting it correctly and the documented in my medical chart that I had stopped taking it, which was untrue. Now that I have a better physician I know that research shows endometrin alone is rarely successful. I should have been prescribed PIO or a PIO and vag insert combo.

12,000

She didn’t seem to care one way or the other.

He is very charming. I feel though unless you have a fairly easy case, easy to stimulate, lots of eggs, good rate of fertilization then he is willing to work with you. If you are a challenging or slightly difficult case, meaning you have DOR, poor eq quality, high attrition rate of your eggs then you should definitely look elsewhere. He seemed to have no added advice or plan of action if you had a poor stim cycle.

If you are older, 40 and over, DOR, this is not the doctor you should choose. He is very sweet, but if you are a difficult case, then I would choose another clinic.

Initially, he started me on OCP, which over suppressed me. That was stopped half way through. The 2nd time, he primed me with Estrogen and Progesterone and that helped my numbers. The Menopur and Gonal were high doses. I cannot recall the exact numbers. 5 eggs from this cycle. The 3rd time, he did Estrogen and progesterone priming, but added Lupron, and same doses of Menopur and Gonal. 1 egg from this cycle. My AFC was 10-11.

All my costs were covered by BCBS AFTER I met my deductible which was $2400 in network.Meds covered pretty much under my insurance.

Dr. Rodgers makes changes to try to give the best outcome. The second egg retrieval we made changes that helped retrieve more eggs. She's open to talking about supplements. She will go to bat for you if medically she thinks it worth perusing. I think she tries to do the right thing for each patient. I'm no just a number.

She's great at answering questions, make sure you bring some because she doesn't always cover details unless directly asked-why do you think this treatment plan will be better for me, etc.

1) Schoyer Ganirelix 175 Gonal F/150 Menopur-increase to 450 Gonal/F 2)Micro dose Lupron with 300 Gonal F/300 Menopur no changes made to stim doses

I used Attain $26,600 for two cycle program and FET transfers until one worked. We paid that amount and $10,000 in stimulate medications, $3000 in donor workup for sperm, $1,000 for FET medications

My doctor suggested 1 and said we have a good chance if you'd done an ERA and the embroyo is PGT tested. I'm aware of the health risks to both mom and baby with multiples and from past failures don't want to waste embroyos. Plus we signed up for Attain so the transfers are covered until one works.

Very compassionate and honest. We feel that she is truly doing her due diligence with testing before we rush into IVF again. She takes the time to answer all our questions and walk us through the process. Her team is amazing as well. They are constantly checking in with us

The compassion she has for her job shows and she truly wants you to understand all your options and the risk involved. I’ve worked with several RE’s and she by far has the most upfront doctor explaining all our options and tests to get to the bottom of our infertility & reoccurring loss.

Treatment strategy so far has been to test for all possible outcomes for reoccurring loss & infertility. The supplement protocol and timing of procedures and even freezing eggs and transferring back once your body has healed is a different approach than most of the other clinics that only want a freah transfer

$40 Co pay for initial visit. Insurance covers some testing to determine cause of infertility.. lots of out of pocket for sonograms and blood work. We’re in process of starting IVF so roughly $20k out of pocket