Fertility & Genetics

After about a year with the clinic, it seems like the clinic suddenly started rotating with new people? I feel like looking back perhaps some of the staff felt overworked and overwhelmed by the amount of patients and work. The deal breaker for me was the price. I could not do another IVF cycle for financial reasons after getting surprised. After the primary billing/insurance person left, it seems billing was not being done properly/or correctly, or maybe at all? I was being billed both in and out of network fees and both were quite high for comparable clinics.

His clinic is a boutique clinic. He works hard, seven days a week, but sometimes I felt like the two nurses he had at the time were overwhelmed. Communication was good in person, emailing or calling was sometimes frustrating. You would call, email, and call, call, call to get the answers you need. I felt like Dr. Abae listened, and he was patient because I always came with a lot of questions and research studies to find out if he agreed with them being applicable for my situation.

Rachel was very caring and compassionate. She was a real nurse! I was sad that she left the practice.

Dr. Abae may not be super blunt at time. He seemed nice and approachable and wanting his patients to succeed. I felt that at times he was too nice and masked the true reality of a situation. Maybe he didn't want to hurt my feelings and perhaps say how poor the situation may be. For example, if you don't have a heartbeat by a certain week in the first trimester, tell the patient that 99 percent of the time the pregnancy is doomed and you can either wait for a miscarriage or have a D&C.

Ask questions, be aware his clinic is very expensive because it is a private boutique clinic, and get prices from the financial person. He may not have enough staff at all times, which can be a big problem and hurt communication.

My protocol was a micro dose flair protocol with HGH

I felt that monitoring in the morning worked well, I was usually in at 7:30 am and make it to work on time most of the time. My clinic was about an hour away from my job in the rush hour traffic.

I spent a lot of money. I purchased a 3 cycle IVF package with PGS screening. I got a refund on the screening because the embryos did not grow to day 5/6. Apart from that fee, which changes, so ask and get it in writing! I elected to pay for 1st trimester monitoring three times after spontaneous pregnancies, one of which we had to stop my IVF cycle for and had to have 3 D&C procedures for missed miscarriages. The fees for the 1st trimester monitoring and D&C's were more that the IVF package! I think the cost of my out of pocket treatment with Dr. Abae's treatment would be about the same as 1 or maybe 2 luxury suv's!

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They could be better at communicating when they say they will email or call. However, after calling ourselves we were able to speak to and have great communication with the staff. Their strengths are being able to explain everything fully and very compassionately.

The office staff was wonderful to me. Every step of the way I was treated like a human rather than a number. They knew my fear of needles and tried to ease that for the blood draws, and they were never rude or cold to me ever. Dr. Abae was always on time and I never felt rushed.

I loved Rachel, as well as the rest of the staff.. She was so wonderful at describing everything to me and us in detail. She was compassionate, and caring. She took into account my hatred for needles and helped to ease my nerves for every blood draw. She was so Great! The rest of the staff treated me very nicely and warm.

I loved Dr. Abae. He was very thorough. I liked him because his bedside manor was very calming and nice. After researching he was our first choice, and I could of only been happier choosing him had I gotten pregnant the first time. I look forward to the next chapter of this story with him being my doctor again. At the point of my retrieval I had messed up and was given the choice of having my retrieval awake or cancel it. I chose awake, as I didn't want to waste my time, money, and feelings. He talked me through the whole thing to make sure I was comfortable and calm. It was a wonderful experience - especially because I was the one who messed up!

Schedule early appointments, and be on time. Follow all the instructions he gives- as he knows best!

I started with Follistim 200 units, Menopur 150 units injected, as well as Doxycycline 1 tab twice daily, low dose Aspirin, prenatals. I then had to go in after 4 days and have bloodwork and ultrasound, and then a follow up one three days later. For the HCG I injected 10,000 IU of Novarel. I had the retrieval. I was then put onto birth control for a total of 13 days, then just continued with prenatals. After my period started I was on 20mg of Delestrogen as well as 1 low dose Aspirin every three days as well as the prenatal and Aspirin in between. I would then return to the office for blood work and an ultrasound. After this I was moved on to adding Progesterone in sesame oil 100mg injected to the 20 mg of Delestrogen (this every 3rd day) The transfer happened and I was put onto Endometrin 100mg inserts 3 times a day, Prometrium 100mg orally 2 times a day, Estrace 2mg twice a day, low dose Asprin, & prenatals. For the retrieval I got 16 follicles, 10 mature eggs, from those we got 2 embryos that we sent for PGS, and 1 "normal" embryo.

The cost of our package - which was for 1 fresh and 2 frozen cycles- including 4 PGS tested embryos was $12,900. There was an extra $400 for anesthesia for retrieval, plus $100 for a month of embryo storage. The total for medication was arounf $4700.

Dr. Abae said he preferred to implant 1 embryo if they are PGS tested, as it has a better chance of implanting. If we had wanted to implant two he said he would have done this if they were not PGS tested.

This clinic is kept clean and tidy. The embryology lab also looks clean and tidy and you can have access to speak to the embryologist. Everything does look old and outdated and at one point there was a power outage. The only strength is that they have a OR on first floor so ER was smooth and easy. Weakness is everything all equipment old and falling apart.

Once I purchased the package it was extremely difficult to get any help from my clinic nurse. I called several times and they never pick up the phone or listen to voicemail. I had to drive 30 minutes to get to any help. Also, after ER I got no follow up call or information of what was the next step as far as medications and when we are doing ET or not. Finally, the schedule me for appointment and if I didn't physically drive there to speak to the clinic secretary I would've missed my appointments. They are so busy that they couldn't keep up with my cycle and it turned led to them ignoring how I was responding to the medications. I was in so much pain because of my endometriosis and begged the doctor to help me because I had just gotten out of the Emergency Room and the endometriosis pain was bad. He simply said take a Motrin (which isn't good for fresh transfer) I won't give you anything else because I can't risk you becoming addicted. If this RE knew about endometriosis he would never said something like that suggesting I am a drug seeker when I am not.

I had to work and as a ER nurse I needed my boss needed my work dates. I kept begging the nurse to give me dates and never did. I had to work all weekend and most mid shift so I would have my morning open because of this. Then I got my medication last minute because she told me to wait to order. Which then resulted in me leaving work early to run around to get these medications. I got the calendar the day before I had to start. The only good thing is this nurse can draw blood. She scheduled me appointment without telling me and mainly I can never reach her. When I went to the Emergency we had to call her so we can get ahold of the doctor so that way my treating Emergency doctor can help me out well they never called back. I would try to speak with her and get some communication with her and sometimes she was looking at her phone.

Dr Abae at first is very nice approachable and great bedside manners. I showed him my surgery pictures and explained that I have worse endometriosis and many doctors don't know how to handle it. I asked for his honest response if he has worked with a patient of my situation and does he know what he wants to do. Dr Abae mentioned he wanted to me to go for multiple package because I may have some frosties left and I can use those in case fresh doesn't work. He also mentioned he knows how to work with endometriosis and he feels he can get me pregnant. So because he was so nice and what seemed knowledgeable I went forward with him. After the first ultrasound I mentioned that we may need to do FET and bypass a fresh because the flare up with endometriosis was getting bad. He mentioned that we will cross that bridge when we get there. So next visit I did some research and said Dr Abae I'm in a lot of pain please why don't we consider doing a FET and than also doing some intralipids. I have heard it's great for endometriosis and seen many success stories. He blatantly said I don't do experimental stuff and if you want that you can go to another clinic and as for frozen I don't think your eggs are going to be strong enough for frozen. My thought is if they aren't strong to withstand freeze with my endometriosis being so bad they won't stand a chance in fresh either. He also suggested I was a pill popper when I asked for Percocet because I couldn't take Motrin if I am doing a fresh due to the uterine lining can be affected. He told me take Motrin we are doing FET so I was so happy to hear. ER came and went and I felt so much better because I had 18 follicles pressing on my endometriosis. Then the doctor told me last minute that we are doing fresh and to be at the clinic the next at 1 pm. I had no clue since he last said it would be a FET so me and DH called out of work for this. We did ET and then I got AF 2 days before my beta. I went to the office and Dr Abae didn't even speak with me that day. I was devastated and crying but he was in his office and told his secretary and nurse to take a blood beta and schedule me to follow up the next morning. So blood beta was negative as I already knew. Me and DH went to this what the heck follow up appointment. I was explaining to him that he had no clue about my endometriosis and that he assumed I would have something to freeze and I had nothing left over. Dr Abae mention that we should wait a month and do another IVF cycle but that meant more money. So I said why should we continue are you going to do intralipids or go straight to FET like I mentioned? He told me he would not do intralipids because he doesn't believe in it. And we may do FET (he was still uncertain). I kept saying something isn't right yes IVF can be painful but I went to the emergency room multiple times and I think we need to do something about it. Dr Abae said some women go through the same pain so that's normal. Well in the end I went to endometriosis specialist and I have huge endometrioma cyst size of lemon on my ovary. Something that my RE missed not to mention my endometriosis specialist said I had no chance because my uterus also had fibroids and adhesions. Point being Dr Abae only saw a waking dollar sign and took $13000 and now I have to wait a whole year before doing IVF again.

If you have endometriosis don't go to him he only knows how to get older women with unexplained infertility pregnant.

Gonal f 250, menopur (2 vials), z pal for 10 days, letrazole 2.5 for 5 days, I used 2 cetrotide for day 9 and 10 of stimulation and pulled the pregnyl trigger on day 11. Dr Abae stated he was very aggressive with my stimulation because he didn't know whether I can produce eggs.

13,000 for multi package which includes 1 fresh and 2 frozen. If I needed another fresh it's $5000 more. And then 2,500 for medications. Other cost were copayment of $150 or something like that.

He didn't allow me to make the decision he said I had 2 and he said one was a little behind. And that it's better to put in the stronger one. The embryologist stated that he's 100% certain I can get pregnant with one. So I did just as told. And let the other one go to freeze but it didn't survive.

I had a bad experience with the package coordinator (the person who went over costs and assisting in deciding which package to choose) she only gave partial information. After my cycles were over I realized that I was not given all information for me to make a good decision. She was also very rude. She was the only one in the staff that I have to classify as such. Most everyone was not rude. They could all use more bedside manner but she was rude. My advice to any New patient is do your own research don’t rely on the center to give you information because they won’t.

After all was said and done although I did not receive the results that I wanted I felt like the clinic was more about the money that anything. The Doctor did not have a good bedside manner and I feel that he could have done more testing before going forward with the treatments.

My nurse staff was nice generally but there were not good at returning phone calls or emails.

I feel that the Doctor has a good knowledge of his field however I don’t think he take a care and concern approach. There were many things that had I had known I may not have taken certain approaches at certain times.

Go in with her head and not your heart. Try to take your time and prove the Doctor to answer any and all questions. If you don’t go in with your research this Doctor will definitely not willingly give the information. I feel he is more about money than care.

1st one was the antagonist protocol. I used birth control and then used gonal f 250and menopur 300. Then certitide. Got only 8 mature eggs. Transferred 2. 2nd one I used Lupron protocol. Used gonal f again at 275 and Merional at 375. I think. Got 17 eggs, 10 mature 5 made it to 5 day and transferred 2.

I paid $15,900 for a multi cycle. Plus an additional $700 for anesthesia.

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I was not a patient long enough to notice any weaknesses but the clinic was extremely clean, nicely decorated and ran very smoothly. When you call they recognize you as a patient and they take care of you right away. Its a very smooth operation. In the surgery suite it is set up just like a hospital so its sanitized and clean. Overall I'd say strengths all the way!

The staff was fantastic. They treated you like a friend and knew your name. The ladies at the front desk gave us a ton of information and seemed to truly care.

They were kind and skilled. I was able to get my blood work drawn right in office and they were very gentle.

The doctor was extremely knowledgeable. The way he explained everything was factual and not emotional which helped a lot since I was already very sensitive. He was also the person to preform my hsg and ultrasounds so it was so comforting knowing he knew exactly what was going on and he spoke with me and explained what was going on through each procedure.

He is smart, he is kind and his office is very informative and caring. Relax you are in good hands.

Dr. Abae recommended to have blood work, an hsg to clear tubal blockages and 2 semen analysis. After we received the results it was determined IVF with ICSI is our best option due to Male factor infertility due to motility and morphology and PCOS.

From what I remember they had a special of $9,000 for 3 fet transfers in one year not including medication or ICSI

We have not gotten at that point in the process yet.