Kindbody - Los Angeles

I answered a lot of this in the first question, as I did not know what other questions there would be, but I will write more. Dr. Brower has been amazing! She is very compassionate towards our situation and makes sure to give us all of our options. When we went in for our first appointment with her, based on our test results, we thought IUI would work. After the IUI did not work (it was our first time with Brower and our fourth time overall) with more tests it became apparent that my husband's sperm are not the best quality; we decided to move forward with IVF. Although some unexpected things have occurred with our first egg retrieval and ICSI (only 1 embryo survived of 8) she has given us all the information she has and what all of our options are. She has called us personally when she gets results and it is always when she says she will or sooner. She has allowed us to talk things through and decide what we want to do with her guidance and not with pressure. Brower has been at all of my appointments, except one, due to Covid-19 and having a limited number of people in the office (the office is now closed, but this was when it was just starting to pick up). Even if I was just getting blood drawn she'd make sure to pop in and say hello. She is also very into the education of a women's body and participates in panels to help educate on fertility/infertility, which I think is awesome! I'd say her strengths are making sure to cover all options, depending on the patients, and being personable- following up with results when she says she will. We can't say what her weaknesses are at the moment, as we have not found any, but I do wish she would have talked to us more about doing more extensive tests on my husband before we did our first egg retrieval/ ICSI- although the tests from his urologist specialist did not make it completely apparent that we needed to do this, so I don't blame Dr. Brower. We really lucked out with finding her and we can't say enough good things on how she has been with us on this journey of trying to start a family.

Don't be afraid to ask any and all questions. Brower is honest and will answer all of your questions to the best of her ability. Also to ask her for recommendations on nutrients, acupuncturist, and therapist as she works along side with all of them and has a handful of people she'd recommend.

I am not sure of the exact naming of the protocol but I was originally going to start my first egg retrieval cycle with taking birth control starting on day 3 of my period for about 10 days then going in for a blood test and ultrasound. If everything look right and my blood test came back good I'd return in 3 days for the same thing and then start my injections. Unfortunately my body did not respond to the BC (I had already started to produce a cyst on my follicle) so I had to stop and wait until my next period cycle. Once I started my period again Brower had me come in on day 2 and if the ultrasound and blood test came back good I would start the injections that night. I was able to start injections in the PM of day 2 of that period (Gonal F - 300 units Menopur - 150 units). I started my injections on 3/11 and had an egg retrieval on 3/21. During that time I went in every other day for blood tests and an ultrasound until 3/18 and then I went in every day until my retrieval on 3/21. I continued with the Gonal F and Menopur until 3/18 and added in the Cetrotide, 1 kit in the AM, 3/14-3/19. I took my trigger medication, Novarel 2500/Lupron Trigger on 3/19 at 9pm, went in for a blood test on 3/20, and my egg retrieval was 3/21, in the morning. The treatment strategy was to try and sync the growth of my follicles and to get the most good mature eggs (and not have the follicles get too big) . I usually have 18-20 follicles showing during ultrasounds before and during medication. My left side ended up under producing more than she thought, and my right side was pretty good. I had 17 eggs retrieved, 11 were mature and 8 became embryos. Of that 8 only one survived after day 5, and came back good from genetic testing. Because my body and uterus/lining seem to be in amazing condition Dr. Brower is hopeful that the one embryo will transfer and become a pregnancy, however she can't make promises and has been very honest about that. Because we want two children I told her we thought we should do another cycle before trying the transfer because I will be 35 this year and it will be better now for egg quality than in the future; she agreed. Because of our first egg retrieval and embryo making cycle came back different than what she expected she advised my husband to do a DNA fragmentation test and then see what we can do and what our options are after we get the test results. She also explained that because of my egg reserve test results (my AMH is 3.24 and AFC is usually 18-20) and age it would be abnormal for it to be all egg quality (as you know there is no way to test of egg quality) so we need to wait for my husbands results before we move forward with another egg retrieval and embryo making cycle. We also found out my husband has a varicose vein in one of his testicles which could be leading to poor sperm quality so depending on his DNA fragmentation test an option could be to remove the sperm directly from the testicles before doing another cycle/ICSI. We hope to get some answers from the test he did soon so we can figure out next steps, what our options are, and put some plans into action, although we are seeing now that plans do not go as they seem they will. For my next egg retrieval cycle, we hope we are able to start in June if everything reopens for medical fertility procedures, Brower is going to try another protocol to see if she can get my follicles to sync up better. I will prep during May to synchronize my follicles with Estrogen patches prior to my June period. I will go into the office 1 week after my ovulation in May for blood test. Once my bloodwork confirms ovulation I will start an Estrogen patch and change it every 3 days until my June period. On Day 2 or 3 of my June period I will have an office appointment with a blood test and ultrasound and if it looks good I will start my Injections that night.

You can also find this and other procedure prices on their website. An egg retrieval cycle with transfer is $12,500 and with genetic testing it is $17000, which is what we did (genetic testing is up to 8 embryo for $4500). If you have 2 cycles of egg retrieval instead of $25,000 they discount it to $20,000, and with genetic testing it is a total of $29,000. Which is what we will end up paying. The medications are $4,000-6,000 each cycle. For me the first cycle, without transfer medications has been about $5,000 or a little more. I will have to see what the cost of transfer medications are however I expect them to be $500-$1,000 since I was told the range for all medications is usually $4,000-$5,000. DNA fragmentation test runs $275-$500, we have not received the bill yet. If my husband has to have sperm removed directly from the testicles it looks like that is $3000-$12,000; from what we have looked up on the web (Doctor Brower would not do this producer).

Dr. Brower explained that this depends on the patient and situation. For us, since my uterus and lining look great, she advised the eSET (and right now that is all we have- hopefully we will get more after the next cycle). She explained how there are more risks for twins if more than 1 egg should attach after transfer. She prefers patients not to go with multiple embryo transfer if the uterus and lining are good and there are no other concerns, however if someone wants to have twins she will talk to them about that. We feel comfortable with her recommending eSET for us and selecting the best embryo if we get more out of our next cycle.

Dr. Mehr is pretty blunt. I can see that being off-putting to some people but I personally appreciated it. It made understanding things a lot clearer. She's thorough and explains her thought process and is willing to talk to you about the science and medical studies that are relevant. Even though we didn't end up with the result we wanted, I still appreciated having her as our doctor through the process.

Write your list of questions in advance and be ready to ask them to Dr. Mehr because I believe she'll be able to answer them.

I had been on Letrozole with another doctor but my progesterone was testing high, so Dr. Mehr suggested I switch to a lower dose of Clomid instead. She was worried about overstimulation. I started on Cycle Day 2 and went back again on Cycle Day 9 to check where I was at. I triggered ovulation that night with the shot and 2 days later went in for my IUI.

$1700 for IUI

As a patient, I felt extremely comfortable with Dr. Brower. She has excellent bedside manor, talks to you like a human (not a number), takes all of your history and testing into consideration, and is very honest and clear with her diagnosis and treatment plan. She takes time to explain everything, answer all questions, and never rushes you.

Be prepared with all of your medical history - everything matters and she will review it all. Also, be prepared to work with other doctors in the clinic as they all work together to accommodate their patients. We were told that, while Dr. Brower is our primary RE, she works as a team with her other doctors and we may work with other doctors during the process.

I went through all of the testing and was scheduled to begin IVF in July 2021, but ended up getting spontaneously pregnant the month before starting IVF treatment (unfortunately, it ended in a miscarriage). That said, Dr. Brower recommended IVF over IUI due to our ages, my medical history, and the fact that we had been TTC for over 3 years with no results. She did not push for genetic testing because I was 33 at the time, and she explained that genetic testing is recommended for women over 35 as that is when the risks of genetic issues become much higher. She also recommended progesterone as I have symptoms that are indicitive of low progesterone.

Kindbody is great about providing prices upfront. My initial virtual consultation was $150, I think follow up appointments with Dr. Brower were $200-300. The entire IVF procedure (not including medications) is $12,500-13,500. If you want to do genetic testing, it is another $4,000. Medication can range from $3,000 to $6,000.

Dr. Brower recommended to single embryo transfer, and provided two reasons: 1) the success rate of implantation is very high for a single embryo (she provided a percentage but I don't recall what it was) and 2) because of the high success rate there is a very high chance that multiple embryo transfer would result in twins. A twin pregnancy is considered high risk, so for that reason they recommend against it.

Never left an appointment with a question about the process. Dr. K is strictly business but has also been a caring person throughout the whole process. Will answer questions we inputted through the portal promptly. Very knowledgeable doctor

Dr. Brower was knowledgeable and patient with me. I tried three IUIs with kindbody that were not successful and when IVF was suggested my partner and I were not ready. When we were, Dr Brower answered our questions and gave us the time and information we needed to move forward in a way that was comfortable for us and our plan was of the utmost importance to Dr Brower because it was important to us. She was wonderful to work with

Share your concerns and ask your questions! No question is too small and no concern is too silly for Dr Brower to go over with you

I cannot recall too many specifics but I remember responding really quickly to folistim injections during our IVF cycle and Dr Brower made a quick adjustment. She was always ready with alternate meds and protocol tweaks which made me feel so well taken care of!

They were very upfront about costs beforehand, but my insurance has a special fertility benefit so I believe I paid a much smaller amount after insurance was billed than a traditional out of pocket patient

Wasn't able to see her at every visit (my issue, not hers, because I had to come super-early for work) and she called me every afternoon to talk about results. Was wonderful about being to able to both make her own recommendations on how I should proceed but also give me the space to make my own decisions. So warm and reassuring during ER process (my first time getting any kind of procedure). Staff is also so organized and professional; communication was top-notch. Ann, her nurse, is amazing. Felt very well cared for. Oh and office is beautiful.

Go see her for a consultation at the very least. Is both very honest and doesn't give false hope, but also warm and open. A great combo.

lupron gonal-f menopur hcg trigger

$6500 procedure + approximately $4000 meds

Dr. Kathiresan spent a lot of extra time explaining the IVF Journey and all of the procedures that I would go through from Retrieval to FET. She was very patient with the fact that I was uncomfortable with needles and took extra time to explain the injections to my husband. Dr. Kathiresan was always available to connect in person in the clinic, on virtual calls or via the Kindbody app.

Bring a list of questions on your phone or written down. You'll feel frazzled when you get into the clinic so it's helpful to have questions to run through.

Due to my age (41) and the fact that we only had 1 healthy embryo viable for FET, Dr. Kathiresan advised a daily Lovenox shot until 6 weeks of pregnancy and Progesterone in Oil every other day until 10 weeks of pregnancy. She also advised Estradiol (oral am/vaginal pm) and Endometrin (vaginal - 3x) daily until 10 weeks of pregnancy. The Progesterone in Oil was incredibly painful for the first few weeks but it really helped to warm the shot under an armpit or in a warm hand prior to injection. Firmly massaging the injection spot was also very effective in spreading out the medication. This course of treatment resulted in a confirmed pregnancy, now over 12 weeks.

IVF Freeze all with PGTa $16,000 IVF Medications prior to retrieval and after transfer cost about $7,500-$8,000 Fetal Embryo Transfer $4,400 There were also $25 office visit costs for the Ultrasounds and Blood Draws

My employer fertility benefits through Carrot only covers single embryo transfer for the safety of the patient. Dr. Kathiresan and I never had to discuss her approach to eSET because it was never my intention to transfer more than 1 embryo.