Fertility Centers of New England

It took me one year to be able to do IVF. Dr. Vitiello was aware of this and when I finally was able to do it, she made a mistake on my medication. I ended up with zero day-5 embryos. There was never an apology or an offer to try again on them with the appropriate medication. When I told her about my previous experiences, she was not willing to listen because it wasn't "her data". I may not be a doctor, but I definitely know my experiences personally. Leading up to the cycle, I had numerous consults with her, which were all very positive. The actual cycle was incredibly disappointing.

Double check your treatment protocol.

estrogen priming, 450 IU gonal, cetrotide, I have DOR and was supposed to use microdose lupron, but it was forgotten. I had no day-5 embryos.

Outsourced techs who could not answer any questions.

My insurance covered most of the treatment.

N/A

She was awesome. She would always call with my results and always be so positive. She was really nice and I felt very comfortable with her. She did an amazing job with balancing out my medications so our results were perfect.

Don't rush the process. There are always lots of delays

For ivf I did gonal f, menopur, and cetrotide. Then finished with a trigger shot. I don't remember dosages. But I did go in every three days for follicle scans and blood work.

All ultrasounds and blood work appointments are only available Monday through Saturday 6:30am-7:15 am. This mades appointments difficult if you have young kids but convenient if you have to work

It all depends on your insurance coverage. If your insurance covers then you will have to pay what your out of pocket for the year is. Know your coverage with your insurance and you will know your costs

She wouldn't allow me to transfer more than one. But I am ok with that because it's the greatest chance to a healthy live birth

Dr V informed my husband and I that we had "unexplained" infertility. She didn't think I had PCOS (previously diagnosed in 2011 by another doctor) and reported that my husband's sperm analysis was fine. I was informed that I needed to drop 15 pounds but not explained why. At later appointments with the nurses I was informed that I needed to be under a BMI of 38 in order for the anesthesiologist to be able to do his job. If I had been an inch taller this would not have been an issue. I was instructed to go on a Keto diet and I was unable to handle this due to previous bariatric surgery causing issues with high fat diets. When I researched and found another clinic who used Dr V's test results we were informed we actually have male factor infertility and I was taken off metformin and birth control (which Dr V's office did not have any record of having put me on).

Only go if you're already under a BMI of 38. There's no reasoning for this other than their anesthesiologist doesn't know how to handle obesity.

We only got through a testing round.

I was 100% insurance coverage after I hit my deductible. I had $30 copays and had to shell out for a few blood tests. My main issue was with Quest Diagnostics and their billing practices.

None

Dr. Vitiello can be very blunt which can be seen as a strength or a weakness depending on personal preference. First, time we met her...she told us she would not do IVF with my own eggs because it would be like stealing our money. That made us go to another clinic immediately. However, we then had got new insurance that had some fertility coverage which made us have to switch back to FCNE.

Do not expect compassion or individualized care. Educate yourself immensely so that you can be informed before making any final decisions.

We did one IVF with own eggs which was cancelled before transfer because the 3 embryos created did not make it to day 5. The next treatment was Donor Eggs. We were highly encouraged to do a fresh cycle which we trusted the doctors professional opinion seeing how donor eggs was whole new world to us. After paying a lot more for a fresh cycle we were then convinced to do additional testing on the embryos created which then had to be frozen. WE had 4 great embryos in the end and decided to transfer 2 the first time. Later discovering that the transfer day was wrong after ERA testing. So our first two embryos were literally thrown away. The next two cycles our transfer day was adjusted due to the ERA results.

It depended on the day. Sometimes monitoring went smoothly, other times it was over an hour waiting, or in proper orders in the system or no orders at all. Speaking of monitoring for all four years of services there was a lovely giant bug in the light fixture above the ultrasound table at the Bedford, NH location...I have numerous pictures of this disturbing focal point. The Reading facility was less than up to par as well with filthy bathrooms, extremely dirty rugs and chairs in the waiting room as well as curtains that were disgustingly stained in the retrieval and transfer section of the clinic.

The cost was somewhat typical, however almost all there costs are considered package deals and they will not individualize and will charge you for tests that have already been completed because it is part of the package deal. As Barry in finance rudely stated, "we are not some type of Medicaid clinic, we are for profit business."

Very knowledgeable, but poor patient communication. Every time I met with her I left feeling like my concerns were discounted. For instance in my very first consult we discussed autoimmune issues and recurrent miscarriages. However after several months and no testing for autoimmune disorders when I asked about it again she did a complete 180° Telling me there was no factual evidence supporting that theory. It made me feel like initially she had just told me whatever I wanted to hear to get me through the door.

Be your own advocate. She is very smart, but if you are a patient of hers you will need to advocate for yourself and your concerns as well as do your own research and ask questions to understand her theories and thought process.

She ordered the typical RPL panel, did a sono hsg, ultrasounds and an endometrial biopsy. The only thing that was treated was my subclinical hypothyroidism.

Appointment and ultrasounds seemed very expensive while bloodworm was inexpensive. I found their IVF prices to be very inexpensive as well

Dr. Vitiello comes across very confident and knowledgeable in her field, which is reassuring. She tends to explain things very quickly, so if you don't know what to expect or what questions to ask, you may not always get that information. She never made us feel rushed and seems to genuinely care about her patients. Her answers can be vague at times, as if she doesn't want to give too much information, probably to not cause unnecessary worry or anxiety, but this can be frustrating and leave you with even more questions down the road.

Dr. Vitiello has a way of making you smile even in the most stressful situations. She made my husband and I feel relaxed and confident, after very stressful and frustrating experiences at other clinics. While she does take the time to explain things and answer questions, she does not seem to go into a lot of detail and just gives the basics, so you may need to ask very specific questions to get the answers you are looking for.

This is one area I feel that I would have liked a little more detail. I was given a chart showing the progression of my IVF cycle, but was never really given a reason why it was specifically chosen for me or the purpose of each medication. Also, directions are given through the online portal at different steps along the way, which made me feel like I never had a clear picture of the entire process until it was over since you don't know the next step until they send it to you. This can make it difficult to fully prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for what you are about to go through.

Monitoring appointments are done during a specific timeframe in the morning and are first come, first serve. Most of the time the waiting room is full.

We did not have insurance coverage, so everything was out-of-pocket. With doctor visits, ultrasounds, blood work, IUIs, IVF, and meds around $15,000+.

We chose the Fertility Centers of New England by default through what our insurance covered, therefore Dr. Vitiello was not someone who we had thoroughly researched prior to meeting her on our first visit. We were very nervous meeting her since infertility is such a sensitive subject we weren't sure how it was going to go. Immediately after meeting her and having her walk us through their process of how she goes about diagnosing infertility we felt as ease because she presented it in a way that was easy for us as non-doctors to understand. After getting the diagnosis of unexplained infertility she again walked us through all of our options (IUI, IVF, etc) and was very honest in what direction makes the most sense for us to spend our money that will give us the results we want. I appreciated the bluntness she gave when she told us IVF will give us the most bang for our buck. We ended up having to go through 2 rounds of IVF before getting pregnant and when our first round of IVF was unsuccessful she called me personally to tell me the results and let me cry it out on the phone with her. She was able to calm me down and reassured me that she will make sure that we get it right the next time. I have never had a doctor who delivers bad news and then will stay on the phone with you while you process the information and be a shoulder to cry on. On our second round of IVF we were successful and became pregnant - I will always remember answering the phone to a screaming YAY from Dr. Vitiello - not a hi, not a this is Dr. Vitiello - a YAY which showed that she was as excited as we were that it was successful and that she cared about us. I was lucky to have Dr. Vitiello perform both egg retrievals as well both embryo transfers and both times she made both my husband and I feel at ease during all of the these procedures. I highly recommend her to anyone who is struggling to get pregnant because she is not only a great doctor who will find the way to get to your desired results, but she also really cares about her patients.

She does not have a warm bedside manner. She is straight forward and sometimes blunt. She said that her staff would be accommodating but most times they were not.

Don't expect a warm, fluffy personality. But I did get positive results.

Very inconvenient. It felt like a cattle call. Often sitting and waiting. Very early in the morning and no leniency. Sunday monitoring was an hours drive and the wait was often 30-60 minutes

I was lucky enough to have insurance cover both cycles of IVF. They paid about $11k per cycle with meds and monitoring.

She makes the whole process a little less stressful. She is serious yet tries to lighten the mood which is much needed. She is also very truthful and does not tell you what you want to hear, instead the facts and opinions based on those facts.

Go in with an open mind

It’s hard because everyone is different. With our unexplained infertility she gave us the best course of action that she thought would work for us.

It’s a first come first serve basis. You sign in on a clipboard and they call you in order.

Costs were $10,000 for IVF. $1,800 for frozen transfer. Another $4,000 for meds but that’s different for everyone.

She has had twins herself and so she has insights on one vs. two. She makes it 100% your decision and stands behind it.

Dr. Vitiello is very intelligent, came up with a great plan that worked for us, presented us with options that other doctors weren’t sure were possible, but they totally were! She was confident in what she was doing, yet gave us the facts straight so that we felt optimistic, but knew there were no guarantees. She is blunt and to the point, but gave us all the information that we needed to know. We will definitely be going back to her in the future.

Monitoring is very early in the morning and is a first come, first serve basis. It can get long on a busy day, but the clinic got people in and out as quickly as possible, while still giving everyone thorough attention.

Extremely knowledgeable about the entire process. When asking her questions about risks, percentages and probability she was honest. No lying to make us feel better. She gave us the reality and also gave us the strength and courage to try for our little one.

We have recommended already 2 other friends to her. Call her today because she is the best.

My tubes were blocked so we decided to bypass them and do IVF. We could have attempted to repair the tubes, but she said there was only a 20% chance of it working.

$5,000

We wanted the best of the best and didn’t want 2 kids at the same time

Doctor Write is definitely an expert in her field and very informative during the first meeting. Unfortunately that is all I can say about her since we only saw her once to get all the information needed and the second time to sign papers. After that we never saw or heard from her again. The nurses took the lead and another doctor was the one during the transfer.

If you like a warm, caring doctor, she may not be the right doctor for you but she is extremely knowledgeable in her field and will take her time to answer all of your questions

Since my cycle was a donor cycle she prepared my body with estrogen, increasing the dosage every week and introduced progesterone in oil one week before the embryo transfer. When my uterine pinning wasn’t thick enough, she delayed the cycle a week, hold off on progesterone and increased the estrogen intake. That week delay was enough to get my body where it needed to be for the embryo transfer. The pregnancy result negative

About $20k plus medication

At the very beginning of the IVF cycle treatment, I was prescribed estrogen and blood tests showed due to my age, my body was slow to react to it. My dosage was doubled and I was told to come back in three days for monitoring. At that point, my estrogen levels were way too high and I was prescribed another drug to DECREASE it. They were still so high that a fresh embryo transfer wasn't even possible let alone getting valid embryos from the retrieval. We were not offered the option of PGS testing as I believe Dr. Weiss knew very well that none of them were going to work. And after being overmedicated, Dr. Weiss did not adjust his plan other than delaying the embryo transfer, he just proceeded with protocol. Without even asking or being told, Dr. Vitiello did my third transfer which ended in a miscarriage. The whole time Dr Weiss kept repeating "There is no reason why this shouldn't work" and "Everything looks perfect." I spoke with him and politely requested he be transparent with us and he became incredibly defensive. Have not heard from him since we miscarried. I never once was under the impression that Dr. Weiss really cared or hoped that we got pregnant. He was late to every appointment and communicated horribly with his "care team". Dr Weiss is just as horrible of a person as he is a physician.

Find another doctor.

Dr Weiss over prescribed estrogen, then prescribed a medication to counter my estrogen levels being too high yet scheduled the egg retrieval as though my levels were normal. Resulted in 4 horribly immature invalid embryos and never offered us the option of PGS testing. I believe Dr Weiss made no extra effort to care for me as he knew that the whole cycle was a wash so he treated me like I was wasting his time. Dr Weiss repeatedly would set a timeline/ schedule (i.e. "We can do a transfer in four weeks) only for mentioned procedure to happen WEEKS after that. Horrible bed side manners. Incompetent. Insensitive. Rude. Condescending.

Sometimes, I was taken early so it didn't mess up my schedule too bad. Pretty convenient.

We are probably down between $5,000-$8,000 in copays and medications not covered and still have no baby. The post miscarriage therapy isn't cheap either. Honestly, there is no price tag not being able to trust your doctor.

He insisted on 1 embryo for the first two transfers and then did two for the last which resulted in a miscarriage.

Dr Weiss was willing to adjust the protocols for each of my many IVF attempts, and to try new protocols being developed in the industry when standard ones didn't work well on me. I never felt like he was judging me (unlike my original fertility doctor at another clinic), and although I don't really care about bedside manner (caring more about results), he has a good one and seems to care about the ups and downs you go through during this process.

He has the data driven facts available, but you need to ask for them as he doesn't necessarily lead with them.

I do not remember the details of the 4 IVF protocols Dr Weiss did with me, as they were in 2014-2015, other than that he was willing to try the micro-stimulation type (aka "Japanese" protocol or that done by New Hope Clinic in NYC) when the large doses of drugs were not working well. For the two Donor Egg cycles, Dr Weiss prefers to do transfers with frozen embryos, before the transfer he has you do a round of antibiotics and take estrogen. Post transfer, he has me take both estrogen and injectable progesterone in oil - the latter until about the 10th week of pregnancy.

Don't remember details, but did like that cost for ICSI was automatically included in package as they use it frequently, instead of having it be an extra line item as was at 1st clinic.

Each time I was monitored I was never told how many follicles I had. They only retrieved 8 eggs, 2 mature and only 1 fertilized. We transferred this 1 embryo day 5. I kept asking for the grading of my embryo but no one would tell me. The day of transfer I was told "it's was fair" but I wasn't given the choice not to transfer and to stim again for better results. I got a BFP Christmas Eve. Had first ultrasound two weeks later. Saw a heartbeat. Was elated. They pushed me out the door to my OB and never monitored me again or even called to check in. When my OB finally got me in at 10 weeks we did paperwork. 3 days later I miscarried. Baby had stopped growing at 7 weeks (when I saw Beth plante). Not once has FCNE called me about my miscarriage. And now because I was discharged as a positive beta and pregnant my IVF assist is null and void. I am OOP for everything but all they cared about was money. Beth plante did not do any of my procedures other than a polyp removal. I got my medical records to send to a new clinic and found out the embryo they transferred was ABNORMAL and they never told me!!

Ask a lot of questions and push for answers. Be your own advocate. Demand to know how everything is going every step of the way.

Antagonist cycle. 187.5 units gonal-f cycle day 2-6, upped to 225 day 7-10. Menopur 75 IU day 5-9. Cetrotide .25mg day 7-9. PIO day 13 until 10w

Had to get there super early to avoid waiting

$8,900 cycle plus medication

She's very nice, but as I cited before, quiet and reserved. When I asked a question she answered it but at no time did I feel like she was anticipating my concerns, my angst. We had a lot of preliminary work done with my GYN before we saw Dr. Plante and she just took that as us knowing full well what all of our issues were. We did not, and there was missteps at our first appointment, where she thought I knew how grave our situation was and we didn't. It would have behooved her to have asked what was our understanding and then take it from here with her expertise.

This is hard to say since every case is so different. I trust her, I think she's smart and accomplished. I have said if you want a reassuring compassionate, get to know you reproductive oncologist, she's not the one. She is gentle though.

Mine was the maximum protocol, we did it twice. Lupron and Gonal-F. 10 units of Microflare Lupron 50µg/0.1mL x daily and 225 IU of Gonal-F Pen also twice daily. Each time it took me about 16 days to get to my trigger shot.

Extremely well organized; super staff. Results/orders were posted really quickly every day.

I trust her. I am a health care professional and ask a lot of questions that most wouldn't think or know to ask. She answers all of my questions. If I want to change the plan, we meet again and discuss the pros and cons. I listen to her and have found that some who have different doctors are not as informed as I am about possible options.

She wants her patients to have successful outcomes.

I don't remember the protocols but I had injections and blood monitoring and ultrasound reviews to evaluate how my body was responding. We adjusted the treatment for the second cycle because I had side effects to the medications.

I paid out of pocket for all of my treatments thus far.

I have not yet gone to the embryo transfer so I cannot comment.

Nice bedside manner, active listener. Discusses things thoroughly when in face to face meetings. Communications outside of office visits were lacking and too many times were there questions that fell on the nursing staff to act as mediators.

Be your own advocate and ask lots of questions.

estrace patches , vaginal and oral estrogen. then when ready progesterone in oil shots, FET day 6. Uterus lining FET #1 6.5 mm, not pregnant Uterus lining FET # 7.9 mm, pregnant , then miscarried week 6

I am 40, went through menopause at 31 and one embryo was discussed due to multiple risk factors. Also, that I had 6 total viable embryos that has PGS

He was honest, hopeful and realistic of what we were dealing with. He spoke to me in terms I could understand and spent as much time as I needed. He was willing to push managed care to help me and willing to take calculated, well though out risks with my care.

Have good questions about your care, he is willing to answer them and it will give you power over your care.

It was covered by insurance. I only had copay for the visits where I saw him (not blood draws etc)

He is an excellent scientist but lacking in compassion.

Go in with a thick skin and question him on the source of his stats. Don't let him rush you.

Wonderful doctor. Sweet and knowledgeable. Love her. She made me feel like I could ask her anything and was genuinely sad when I lost my first baby. She works hard with her team to provide excellent care and it shows

You’re going to love her.

Nothing specific that I recall

Nothing covered by insurance for me at all

We had one phone consultation with Dr. Hill before our first IVF cycle. He did not do our egg retrieval nor did he check in during monitoring. He did not call when the cycle failed. We met with him (which we initiated) to plan our second cycle. We were all still hopeful at this point and he was fairly outgoing and conversational. He did not do any monitoring or the egg retrieval, and again, no contact during the cycle. He called to recommend donor eggs when he called to tell me the cycle failed. We met with him several months later, and was a little less friendly at this point, because as he explained, we were using a “free cycle” that he didn’t feel should be free (he stated we had waited too long for to use our 2 for 1 cycle). He did do that egg retreival, and left me a voicemail the next day that was about ten seconds long, that said “Hey Meredith, not good news unfortunately. As predicted, no eggs fertilized this cycle. I’m going to recommend you try donor eggs. Bye bye now.” And we have never talked since.

His clinic is affordable, which is why we went with him. We did not have a good experience (x3). I would gladly pay a little more for a better experience overall— even if the cycle ultimately failed. Our cycles all failed, which may or may not have been Dr. Hill’s fault (he never really tweaked the protocol, he just continued to recommend donor eggs). It was the overall experience that we remember and want others to know about.

We used antagonist (Gonal-F, Menopur, Cetrotide) for two cycles and Long Lupron for one cycle.

Overall monitoring worked like a well-oiled machine, once you know the process.

We did a two cycles for the price of one deal that included monitoring, egg retrieval and transfer. Medications were separate.

Although we never got as far as a transfer, Dr. Hill indicated that he would transfer 2 embryos if that was our wish. He left it totally up to us.

Dr. Hill is wonderful. He is straight forward without being harsh and will give you the information you mean without fluff. I prefer that over sugar coating! I know some have thought he was "mean" but I never had that experience and from reading reviews, I think his was more often than not, related to him critiquing patient's weight.

Ask questions! He often comes across as speeding through appointments/consults, but it isn't because he doesn't care. He just has a plan and knows what it is! Trust him!

I have always done the standard lupin protocol, but for my next one we are changing it up to the micro flare lupron in hopes of getting more embryos!

Blood work is first, and usually that staff arrives really early so you can get that done and be first in line for U/S.

Self pay and it isn't cheap but FCNE seemed to have the most affordable.

We only did one transfer where we transferred two embryos, so i cannot speak to this much.

Dr.Hill is very knowlegable and straight to the point. Which I loved. He always made sure we understood our next step. Our experience has been great besides not having a live birth. Through one egg retrieval and 2 transfers I have never felt like I didn’t know what was going on. My questions and concerns were always answered in a timely manner and with a straight answer.

Ask as many questions as you can think of.

I believe I did the antagonist protocol with my fresh cycle. My fresh cycle included 3 different injectables and oral estrogen. With our FET we did 12-14 days of vaginal estrogen then adding progesterone injections 6 days before transfer.

So far $17,000

I wish I would of had the choice of multiple embryo transfer for our FET as it ended in a negative pregnancy test and we only have one embryo remaining. Our fresh cycle ended in a miscarriage at 6.5 weeks.

Dr. Weiss is not an unfriendly person; I think he quite possibly could be a nice guy to know. Unfortunately, his mannerisms in the office did not convey confidence or give us the impression that he was "in our corner". In the grand scheme of infertility cases, my husband and I are quite straightforward. However, we did not appreciate being automatically put onto a standard protocol without special consideration for our needs and/or health conditions. If I was not acutely aware of my own health and fertility concepts , we might have been talked into the completely wrong choice. In the end, I truly believe that had another doctor not stepped in to assist our case, we may have repeated this unsuccessful transfer protocol over and over. There is a benefit to having a gigantic clinic, and perhaps some find the mechanics and timing of that helpful. However, this really strained the relationship between us and Dr. Weiss, and I would not recommend this additional stress to anyone already going through infertility.

You are going to have to advocate for yourself HARD. You have to constantly remind the doctor of everything about you, all the time. If you are not comfortable with that, or do not know this process very well, we would advise seeking alternate care.

In summary, we did a total of 2 egg retrieval cycles, 2 transfer cycles, and many halted processes in between. We began this journey knowing of our medical history with male factor infertility. This knowledge in itself should have prepped the clinic to request back-up cryopreserved sperm in the event anything happened on the physical day of retrieval (i.e. – if there was any issue getting live sperm on the day of egg retrieval). This was not done and cost us a huge portion of time and lots of insurance hurdles to go through. My husband’s medication halted sperm production during the retrieval, and our oocytes were frozen on day of retrieval, which was not something we discussed prior to surgery. I signed consent forms immediately after anesthesia, and while I would have chosen the same thing in another situation, this lack of planning and harried accommodations infuriated us. My husband eventually created multiple back-up vials of sperm and insisted about them being frozen and stored at the clinic. Due to insurance restrictions, we were now forced to use the frozen oocytes to attempt embryo creation, despite the acknowledgement that success rates would be considerably lower. Nothing can describe the heartbreak when FCNE informed us that none of the oocytes survived the thaw, and we would have to undergo a second retrieval process. Months later, due to travel and other conflicts, we had a second egg retrieval done, and the result of this was 5 total embryos using a fresh semen sample produced the day of retrieval. Under the perceived time pressure that many of us feel undergoing infertility, we elected to conduct a fresh transfer cycle with one of the embryos during the same cycle as the retrieval. It was clear my uterus and body were not ideally prepared for this transfer and quite stressed. Needless to say, the transfer of the fresh embryo did not work, and we were able to freeze down 2 other embryos. We were stressed, hopeless and exhausted, and elected to take a couple months off to let my mind and body recover. Upon return, we commenced an estrogen-supported cycle to attempt a transfer. The Estrogen suppressed ovulation, extended my normal 28-day cycles to greater than 46 days, and the endometrial lining never reached the desired thickness despite countless days of monitoring. Frustrated with Dr. Weiss for trying to push this cycle to success when it clearly was not getting there, I asked for medication to induce a period or ‘breakthrough’ bleed (as without ovulation, it was unsure when my body would decide to menstruate). We therefore started a new ‘cycle’ with plenty of added surprises; upon my first blood & ultrasound monitoring, it was clear that the follicle from my last cycle was still maturing in the ovary, and was now nearly ready to ovulate. This is when a second physician at FCNE took a look at my file (by chance? by intervention???) and determined that we should try a ‘natural’ cycle – we would monitor ovulation and do the transfer immediately after. Yes, this involves a lot of monitoring, but it is almost as natural as you can go. No estrogen, just progesterone support to promote the pregnancy. This was our successful cycle. Ten days post-transfer we had a blazing positive pregnancy test. Had we not been allowed to do a natural cycle for transfer, we may have never got here.

Monitoring was very much a 'cattle-call' process. So many persons in a waiting room where you checked yourself in. I think that having the hours early in the AM was convenenient for most, but it was not as convenient as coming in when it made sense for you.

Thankfully we live in a state with mandated coverage, and our insurance was excellent. We paid for storage of embryos and semen samples, which was in the $100s, but otherwise we only paid our co-pays for cycles and medications.

Single transfer is mandated here, and I support that. As a high-risk patient, I would not have been comfortable with transferring multiple embryos.