LA IVF

I had a relatively seamless experience of stimulation for egg freezing and an uneventful retrieval. Where this clinic failed miserably was in thawing my eggs, retrieved just after my 40th birthday. These were the only eggs that I had frozen. Six months later, I returned with donor sperm to have the eggs thawed and fertilized. Subsequently, when all but 2 eggs disintegrated in the thaw procedure, they failed to communicate transparently and appropriately about the failure of the thaw procedure. They also failed to offer any type of fair remedy (i.e., a refund or at minimum a complimentary cycle). And refused my request for a refund or a complimentary replacement cycle to replace my banked eggs. They also refused to refund any portion of the money that I paid for the thaw/transfer cycle that resulted in no viable thawed eggs. Instead, they blamed their failure on my egg quality. Ironically, a year later, in a mini-IVF cycle, I produced 8 mature eggs of which, 7 fertilized. I have been subsequently told by another doctor that my egg quality is good.

The clinic was relatively small, like a doctor's office, and I was given the option to see the doctor roughly every other visit. I felt that during treatment, questions were answered with appropriate attention.

The nursing staff were compassionate and good to work with.

My caution with this office is my perception of the quality of egg freezing and thawing specifically. I froze 7 mature eggs with LA IVF and decided six months later that I wanted to produce embryos with donor sperm. When I returned to thaw and fertilize my eggs, first, the embryologist did not have all of the supplies necessary to do the thaw. Next, I was informed that only 2 of 7 eggs survived the thaw and that of the two that fertilized, they failed to progress or develop. I was not communicated with directly and had to call and insist on complete information at the end of the incubation period. When I made the assertion that perhaps there was a flaw in their freeze/thaw procedure given that this was an unusually high failure rate for thawing, I was told that I had poor egg quality (the first time this was ever said). I do not have poor egg quality. In subsequent rounds (one year later at age 41) with another doctor (who I much preferred), I produced day 5 and day 3 embryos with mature eggs with no problem and all of my eggs fertilized. Because of the results, I felt like LA IVF clinic was dishonest about their egg thawing experience. Further, when I asked for a refund or a replacement cycle, I was told that they would offer a "discount" if I chose to return to them, but was refused a refund or a complimentary replacement cycle. Atrocious treatment from my perspective and I would not counsel anyone that I cared about to go there for any cycle.

My one piece of advice for a prospective patient of Dr. Bayrak is to absolutely not freeze your eggs there, because of what happened to me and the lack of appropriate remedy or honesty. I cannot speak to IVF or other procedures, as I did not return to this clinic after the failed thaw of my eggs and would never return for any procedure under any circumstances.

I was placed on a Follistim regimen (approx ~2200 total IU) of a daily shot plus Menopur after CD 7 or 8 (approx ~375 total IU). My trigger was HCG and Cetrotide was used at the very end prior to retreival.

Montioring appointments were comfortable experiences. The nursing staff were very nice and the doctor would usually perform my ultrasound himself.

I believe I paid between $8000 - $9000 for egg freezing and somewhere around $2000 for the failed thaw, fertilization, incubation and transfer cycle. No refund was provided for the failed cycle. And no financial accommodations were made to address the financial burden of the complete loss of my only banked eggs.

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One strength is that the clinic feels intimate and private. They cover up your name on the clipboard and are careful to close the reception window when making calls. I think they take patient confidentially seriously.

The Dr. Was generally kind and respectful and professional. I did not feel pressured or hounded by him and he answered questions by email regularly. Some of the office staff were really friendly, though they also seemed busy too.

They were mixed but generally helpful and professional. Some of the young ones were really nice and would hold my hand during tests or procedures. One older woman was rather the ruler of the roost and very no-nonsense (not a bad thing, just a different style.)

The Dr seems very knowledgable - he has a wall of degrees and lots of positive reviews online, which is why I decided to check him out. He's been specializing in this case for 10+ years and he knows what to expect. Is services are expensive (no surprise there) but I suppose they're relatively reasonable. The first follicle exam he did was really quick, I did feel a bit rushed afterwards trying to wrap my head around what he was saying. I didn't understand how one bad ovary would lead to a 2% chance instead of a 50% chance but I was whisked out the door before I could get a better explanation. I tried to go back to ask him but he was already on a long conference call and the staff encouraged me to email him. I do still think he's a good dr, but he's so busy that I recommend you make sure you get all your questions answered before you leave!

Write down a list of questions so you don't get nervous and forget them! He will answer them but sometimes you need to ask directly instead of wait for him to volunteer extra information.

I'm still in treatment and have only started the first stage. I'm done a lot of tests - HPG to check if my Fallopian tubes are open, blood work and genetic testing targeted for my race (Jewish), follicle exam for my egg release, AMH levels, and sperm analysis for my partner. Next we are going to try IUI and then if we can get the money we'll go for IVF - fingers crossed I might win this grant and make our dreams come true!

Oh jeez...well it's $350 per visit, it was another $300+ for the follicle exam, $180 for semen analysis....the list goes on...

He mentioned there was no way he wanted to try for twins with me as it was too risky (I'm overweight.)

The one thing that I feel somewhat sad about is the cost. LA IVF is very expensive. But most in the area are in the same price range from what I recall. The convenience of them having multiple offices in the LA metro area is a plus and a minus. It makes it more convenient for more people, but it also sometimes meant having to go very far out of the way to get to the location where the procedures happen.

When being treated by Dr. Bayrak you see him at every visit. It was a small office and you develop a relationship with your nurse. They care deeply about you and your success and are easily available.

She was wonderful. We got to know one and other quite well. She was so sweet and supportive and very thorough. She always took her time and made sure I was comfortable and had all my questions answered. She would ever remind me of things if I forgot to ask the doctor. Which happened sometimes.

He was a wonderful doctor and I learned so much about infertility and treatment options from him. He helped me tremendously to accept and understand what my body was doing and potential options as well as what future options may be. He always took his time and had an amazing memory for each and every patient.

Because he is a single doctor and has multiple offices he puts patients on his schedule using BC pills. I wonder sometimes if this had any effect on the poor results of my egg retrieval’s but you never know.

Honestly my treatment with him was too long ago to remember the specifics but each retrieval my protocol was adjusted to try and get better results. Unfortunately I never responded to anything the way they expected.

$65000.00

Of the 8 eggs that I had from my retrieval’s. Only one was genetically normal. So when we went to actually conceive with another egg retrieval and IVF we got 2 more eggs that were untested fortunately all 3 fertilized and made it to day 3 and his recommended because the quality of 2 was poor and 1 was fair was to transfer. All. We were not successful. But did all we could with what we had.

Strengths: always seen by the same doctor. Weaknesses: staff is unempathetic, overworked, and too busy to handle patient flow. Clinic itself feels small and lacking in cleanliness.

The staff at Dr. Bayrak's office is cold and lacking empathy. They are continually seeking to expand their practice with three locations. It feels more like a business than a doctor's office. They reported all our information to us late or incorrectly. The waits at the office were longer than reasonable (frequently 45+ minutes after the appointment time before even being seen).

Sylvia reported our cycle incorrectly. At the end of our cycle, she said we had more embryos than we really did. Later, we were told she made a mistake. This was a difficult thing for us to reconcile.

For starters, we received a lecture about the way babies are made with our initial consult, it seemed rather misplaced in a fertility clinic setting. Dr. Bayrak was unable to diagnose the cause of our infertility, so he referred us to a specialist for a diagnosis. Dr. Bayrak prescribed an insufficient dosage of medication to me, as someone with PCOS. He feared hyperstimulation, but overcompensated by making doses too small. This resulted in lots of immature eggs, which ultimately caused our cycle to fail. Dr. Bayrak acted like we were a science experiment. After our cycle failed, he wanted to try again and do a cycle with half donor sperm and half my husband's sperm. He thought this would narrow down who had issues with quality (either my eggs or his sperm). He made IVF seem like a guessing game instead of a science. Our experience with him felt very impersonal. He talked in a lot of generalities and never seemed to see us as people or our case as unique. When asking questions, we received canned responses or answers, sometimes which were irrelevant to our case. He explained the process of IVF minimally. We had to research most of our questions on the internet, and did not feel he had adequate time to spend with us.

Go somewhere else!

Dr. Bayrak decided because I have PCOS he would prescribe me a "baby dose" of medication. This resulted in fewer eggs for retrieval, and most of those that were retrieved were not mature.

Dr. Bayrak prefers eSET, but he was only able to get us one embryo so it didn't make a difference in our case.

I had a really good experience with one of the nurses at the Pasadena office- she wasn't assigned to my case and wasn't always in during my treatments, but she made the experience much better as a consistent friendly face. She was one of the people I was genuinely excited to share our good news and progress with even after we successfully graduated. Overall I think the good outweighed the bad, and with IF being such a difficult journey, we were glad to use LA IVF and have success with our FET.

From our initial consultation and throughout our treatment appointments, I felt Dr Bayrak and his staff were caring and supportive. The Pasadena office was small and felt friendly. I preferred it over the LA office (note: all retrievals are done at the LA office).

I had a primary coordinator for my IVF cycles. She was organized and professional. Not always completely prompt with some replies, but overall kept me informed and answered my questions.

I felt Dr Bayrak was trustworthy and knowledgeable. I personally researched a lot before our consultation and I asked a lot of questions along the way. It was very important to me to understand why and what to expect for each treatment or upcoming appointment. I feel his is compassionate and cares about his job, but not overly so. I understand how others may feel like you're just a dollar sign, but I did feel like the care was sensitive and personal to make this difficult process less difficult. One thing I really appreciated was Dr Bayrak responding to emails when I had concerns or questions I forgot to ask in an appointment. His replies were punctual, easy to understand and specific. Not every communication was perfect and a few times I wanted to talk to him but had to speak to another on his staff (that did not understand my question well enough to be the right person to answer it).

I would suggest doing research on your diagnosis and treatment options a day be prepared to ask questions about why a particular protocol is suggested. Our first cycle was very unsuccessful and took us all by surprise. As upsetting as it was, the debriefing afterward with Dr Bayrak was direct, informational, and supportive. It gave me more confidence to see how his thinking took our first cycle in consideration to make our 2nd and 3rd protocols.

Unfortunately I don't recall the details well now. We thought our initial issue was MFI with some other unknown factors. Our first cycle was GnRx-antagonist with ganarilx plus follistim and menapur. I created eggs but only one struggled to turn into a blast on day 6 (genetic testing showed it was missing several chromosomes). The 2nd and 3rd cycles used a long Lupron agonist protocol with follistim and menapur again. I got 6 blasts on day 5 for the 2nd cycle, 2 blasts on the 3rd cycle. Total of 9 blasts we genetically tested- 3 came back genetically normal.

My Dr was strongly for singleton transfers. I also wasn't interested in having multiples, but he advised good information as to why anyway.

Zero strengths. The reception staff is very rude, and downright mean. The clinic is disorganized and the doctor is stretched too thin. He doesn't care about the patients. Definitely felt like I was part of a money making machine for the doctor.

The doctor will rarely see you and all information is conveyed through medical assistants. He does not employ actual nurses. The doctor only cares about making a profit off of the patients and treated us like a commodity. The care is cold and the emphasis on making payment. The staff is disgruntled and the overall atmosphere is negative. There is a lot of staff turn over. Absolutely no personalized care, you will only receive cookie cutter treatment. we have since switched to a new RE and the difference is night and day.

There is no nursing staff. This clinic only employs medical assistants. They are over worked and disgruntled. They do not communicate well. For example, my first cycle resulted in zero embryos. The medical assistant called and told me we got nothing. That's it. It was devastating news made worse by the cold way it was communicated. A second example: we did two freeze all cycles which resulted in zero normal embryos. This meant we had nothing to transfer after three cycles. Again, the news was very coldly communicated by a medical assistant. They are under-trained and over worked and clearly hate their job. I did not feel they were qualified for the work they were made to do.

It felt like he left many decisions to his medical assistants (not nurses). He does not care about the patients and sees us only as dollar signs. I did not feel like he thought about various ways to treat me, but only used the same protocol over and over even after we had bad results. We were locked in to three cycles with him which we pre-paid (and no refunds are permitted). We otherwise would have changed clinics after the first cycle. His office gave us the run around in terms of scheduling procedures which resulted in delays over a month. The delays were due to his schedule because he is the only doctor for three clinics. He is stretched way too thin. He batches his patients so that your egg retrieval will take place when it works for his schedule and not necessarily when your body is ready.

Please stay away.

Bad results for all three cycles. He did not appear to have a rational for the protocol he used other than it was convenient. We started with long lupron for my first cycle which resulted in zero embryos. He said he would switch protocols for my second cycle, but when I received my injection calendar it was exactly the same. All contact was through his medical assistants so when I spoke with her she told me she just copy and pasted my last protocol. His only strategy appears to be making his patients' cycles fit his schedule. He is one doctor across three locations. He does all inseminations and retrievals over one weekend a month. It's impossible that all his patients would be ready on that one day.

$30k+ for three cycles (excluding medicine, anesthesia, and surgery center costs)

They are very organized and helpful. Very friendly and family like. They know everyone that comes in everytime. You will never feel like a number here.

How office makes you feel like family.

They treat you like family and are there to answer any questions. Very knowledgeable.

He is very much about the science and always trying to make it a more efficient and cost effect process for the patient. He is understanding of the emotional rollercoaster that this process is and makes you feel like your in safe hands.

Don't Google what others are going through. Just call him if you have. Question or concerns. He is very open to questions and responds same day.

I started on the regular protocol but had a failed cycle, no embryos made it to 5 days. I just didn't react to the medication like he hoped. He put me on a more aggressive protocol and we retrieved the same number of eggs, 20 and 2 made it to 5 days embryos. We froze those and went for a 3rd cycle with the same protocol and had 1 more embryos make it to 5 days. We did genetic testing and had 2 out if 3 pass. We decided to transfer 1, Dr. Bayrak was confident that I could hold a pregnancy and he was correct.

My insurance covered the process.

He is going to do what's best for you. We left it up to him on how many he needed to transfer. We only transferred 1 out of the 2. He will not transfer more then 2 at a time.

The team got to know me well through my 3 retrievals. I felt like the nurses in the office were supportive. Linda, at the front desk, even insisted that she be the one who called me with the news that I was pregnant, because she was so invested and happy for me. I cried when I "graduated" to see my OB/GYN because I felt so cared for by Dr Bayrak and his team.

As mentioned before, the nurses were very invested in our process and helpful. It is an emotional process, but they were supportive.

Dr. Bayrak was very hands on. He is the only doctor in his practice, so you see him every time. He altered the course between egg retrievals to try to get the best results. He was very honest about the odds of my conceiving and having a baby, but supportive in where we stood and what next steps might be.

Ask questions. He will spend time with you and answer questions as long as you need. He is responsive to email as well.