Fertility Institute of New Orleans

Dr. Clisham was great at the beginning of the treatment plan. He explained everything in detail to me. During the course of treatment, I asked him to be more involved during the nursing instructions because I was getting confusing information. At one point towards the end of my time at the clinic, Dr. Clisham accused me of having a "pity party" after I was voicing to him my concerns about the nurses mistreatment to me. This drove a wedge between the doctor-patient relationship and lead me to seek care elsewhere.

Go to another clinic. Dr. Clisham means well most of the time, but the clinic is so poorly run that it is impossible to feel like you have support when you go to this clinic. Feeling supported makes a huge difference!

>$35,000

He only offered to transfer 1 embryo at a time

As a patient, I felt that he was extremely intelligent and that there were many options that he wanted to try. As far as showing compassion, I found a lot of the times it was more about money than digging deep into our case.

This doctor has a very good reputation for achieving pregnancies, in my case it was not very good.

We did a few months on Clomid, then we did a few months just are you IUIs and then we did a medicated round all resulting in negatives.

$4000 for medicated cycle with Gonal F and then 500 per IUI

He is caring and offered many extracurricular programs such as detox yoga and diets. But he is old school and doesn’t try new things such as endo scratch for iui. He wanted resources and didn’t have time to read them. He is older and does things how he sees they have worked which could be good.

Do your research and ask questions before treatment begins.

Our first cycle was just Femara and hcg with timed inter course. Our second was femara with injections follistim and ganerelix due to the fact I would ovulate on Friday and need iui on Sunday and they aren’t open. Iui still happened even though I ovulated. Third was same protocol except I started femara on days 4-9 and was able to have my cycle off of a weekend. Neither worked bfn!

Monitoring was $900 and blood work was covered by insurance Iui was $500 and sperm washing was $200

I saw Dr Sartor 4 times- initial consult, pre IUI consult, my third IUI and IVF consult after the third IUI failed. During the course of my treatment, I found out I am BRCA 1 positive, putting me at higher risk for ovarian and breast cancer. My treatment started with one round of unmonitored Femara. Instead of improved ovulation, I had an annovulatory cycle. The next step was IUI with ovulation induction. I started with Femara and Menopur and an HCG trigger shot. My first cycle was 1-2 follicles, second cycle was the same. The third cycle started with 2 weeks of birth control pills due to a large cyst at start of cycle. Then went on to the meds continuing with the same. But this cycle was different in that my body didn’t respond right away and so through the nurse Dr Sartor kept upping my dose of Menopur. Finally after 3 weeks of stimming we had 4 follicles. But again the cycle failed. Next step would be IVF. Dr Sartor was recommending ICSI, PGD (for BRCA 1) and possibly assisted hatching. We didn’t and still don’t have that kind of money. And medical loans have a very high interest rates. We weren’t interested in taking on such massive debt. As much as we want a family we have to be prudent. Also Dr Sartor pushing for PGD was very uncomfortable especially when we found out it was 12000 per cycle minimum. We stepped away from treatment at that time and have been trying on our own since.

Be prepared to stand up for yourself. Don’t let her rush you or steam roll you.

I don’t remember dosing but all cycles started with Femara then Menopur injections with dosing going up as needed for response. I also used gonadotropins to prevent early ovulation and an HCG trigger shot for the 3 IUI cycles. After each insemination the doctor performing it would determine when to start oral progesterone supplementation. I only had 7 dpo progesterone testing once and never had a pregnancy test through the office.

I don’t remember any costs. IUI was about $1500 without meds.

Had we progressed to IVF Dr Sartor only wanted to transfer one embryo. Her reasoning was that you don’t know if someone has an incompetent cervix until something happens so she wants to prevent it.

Dr. Lu was very nice and smiled a lot during my consultation. He was hard to understand and I felt like my questions weren't being completely answered. He kept giving me statistics that were confusing me and I was told I should quickly make a decision about starting treatment as I only had 2-5% chance of conceiving naturally. I only saw him at consultation and the day of my IUI. During the IUI he came in and explained things quickly, performed the procedure, and left the room. My husband and I were both upset when we left.

He is very difficult to understand when he speaks and he is very in to statistics

I had a baseline ultrasound and lab work. I was prescribed Gonal F 100 mIU every day for 5 days to produce follicles, but not too many as I ovulate on my own. I went for ultrasound on day 3 and 6 of the treatment cycle to see how I was responding. On days 5 and 6 I was told to add Ganirelix to my injections to keep from ovulating on my own. On day 7 I did my trigger shot. On day 8 I had my IUI. The cycle resulted in a negative pregnancy test

I believe cost of the bundle was $1275 which included office visits, ultrasounds, and blood work. Medication was not included in that cost. The IUI was $495. If it would have had to be done on a weekend then it would have costed $525.

Dr Lu is very smart. He seemed rushed every time we met with him. We were new to the world of fertility and were looking for answers to our many questions. Genetic testing was a huge part of why we needed help and he brushed it off and said we had to call the facility that handles that directly. He's very clinical, not one for warm and fuzzy.

Have your questions written down and ask all of them. Press him for more information and explanations. My advice would be, if you are young and just need minimal treatments, FINO and Dr Lu will be a good fit. If you are over 38 and need extensive help, seek a second opinion.

We sought a second opinion before doing a cycle with Dr Lu. But have done outside monitoring at FINO.

Outside monitoring is about $250-275/appointment.

We didn't get a chance to discuss this topic.

I felt she was thorough at first but when my first IUI failed she wanted to do the same protocol again. The only reason we changed it up is because I had questions and requested the appointment. Otherwise, we would have repeated the same thing over and I would have never seen her. Also, after a patient spends thousands how do you sit across from them with very little emotion? It just feels cold there at times. I also don't think doctors did deep enough to find the root cause of the issue. When paying cash I shouldn't have to come with lots of questions each time.

Come prepared and have lots of questions and don't be afraid to ask or you will get the same standard protocol as most pastients.

2 failed Femara cycles with timed intercourse and BFN both times. 1st IUI was with Tamoxifen, Follistim, Ganerelix, & 5,000 hcg trigger. IUI was 24 hours post trigger & BFN. 2nd IUI changed slightly because of questions I asked. Tamoxifen, Follistim, Menopur, Ganerelix, Lupron/2,500 hcg trigger. IUI 36 hours after with a BFN. She stated that the reason for pills with injection was there was no evidence to suggest that injections only in an IUI cycle was more successful & it cost more.

I don't feel like Dr. Sartor cared about me as a patient. I don't think she would even know who I was if she saw me in the waiting room. She was once out of town for a scheduled IUI procedure, and I had no idea until a different doctor showed up to preform the procedure.

Don't go.

I don't remember.

I met Dr. Dunaway on a Friday and he performed a laparoscopy/hysteroscopy on Monday. He told my husband different findings than he told me as it relates to my endometriosis and ashermans syndrome. I went to New York to do IVF as it was the only affordable option for me at the time. I was monitored by Dr. Dunaway's office. Once they found out IVF failed, they sent me a certified letter dismissing me from his care.

Don't tell Dr. Dunaway if you get a second opinion or do a procedure elsewhere as he won't accept due to it affecting his numbers.

$2000 for hysteroscopy and laparoscopy and it was covered by insurance

Strengths - experienced and qualified Weaknesses - not very face to face, doesn't explain the reasoning behind all of the treatment options. I felt like I was being pushed toward extremely aggressive treatment too early while being dismissive of my concerns

Ask a lot of questions

I did one cycle with oral medicine and times intercourse.

An oral medicine cycle cost $850. A treatment cycle with iui cost $1500.

I did not do IVF

He was very friendly and he was able to diagnose my problem right away so I had surgery but he didnt explain well what he saw wrong with my tubes just mentioned scarring after my recovery period and when it was time for the actual iui's barely heard or got a response on how to proceed.

He is a good doctor just not a good one for me

Only to inform them when the start of your cycle was so they could schedule the sis

My insurance covered most and I only paid copays and 1,000 toward my out of pocket as the doctor fee before surgery

After 4 miscarriages, tests that should have been done were not. They figured we had bad luck. After seeing a different doctor at a different clinic and getting answers I realized I wasted a lot of time and money in this clinic

Don't go here. There is a better, more compassionate clinic in the area.

We spent over $8,000 and got zero answers

He is research driven & positive. He is not a firm believer in alternative therapies, sich as herbs & supplements, but he's also not against trying them. He seemed to understand our desire for having another child & seemed hopeful but also realistic that there's no exact science for treating infertility. His bedside manner is efficient and knowledgeable, backed up by statistics and information, but he did not appear well-versed or particularly supportive of additional alternative resources (accupuncture, diet, growth hormone, etc.) to utilize in addition to the typical injection protocol.

Ask him for information about why he does not subscribe to alternative supplemental therapies to enhance fertility treatments.

Expensive!