Midwest Reproductive Center

He has seen me through our initial consultation in which we were there due to Male factor. On my first IUI ultrasound he found a large uterine fibroid in which he operated on. I was on to begin IUI again and we were successful on our 4th time. He unfortunately had to be the one to break the news to us that we had an ectopic pregnancy and gently guided us through the next weeks up until it was determined that I undergo surgery and I had lost my left tube. He is very compassionate and takes your goals along with the recommended treatments in mind when setting up a plan. We are continuing with IUIs but have not been as lucky to have completed one yet as we have one tube.

Make a list of questions before this type of appt as they can be very emotional and sometimes you have a hard time thinking about what you needed to ask.

We were to do 4-5 IUIs before it was recommended to be over onto IVF. We were sucess on number 4 so this told us that it can work. After each surgery it was advised to wait one full cycle before beginning another round of meds.

Typical IUI is 680. Cancelled cycles are usually 280 for just the ultrasound. I have had 2 surgeries the first of which was fibroid removal with the davinci system. Out of pocket was around 6,000 and for my ectopic pregnancy out of pocket was 300.

NA

Dr. Gehlbach has a warm personality. He is a busy guy and does not see his patients for every appointment. I get the impression his thoughts are behind most decisions regarding my care. He also puts trust into the nurse practitioners in his clinic.

Ask questions.

We started out with a low dose of clomid along with estrogen. When this did not result in any mature follicles, we changed the treatment immediately to a stronger dose of clomid. This resulted in 3 mature follicles. I was then given an HCG trigger shot and returned the next day for IUI. The first IUI did not work. However, because the medications did result in mature follicles, we did the same treatment on our next try. This time, there was one mature follicle. I, again, received an HCG trigger shot followed by IUI the next day. There was conversation that if this did not work, we would increase the length of time I was taking the clomid. The second IUI resulted in an ectopic pregnancy. Throughout my ectopic pregnancy, Dr. Gehlbach has been very empathetic and compassionate. He has been thorough in his treatment of the ecoptic, while being realistic in the risks. We were able to resolve the pregnancy without surgery and leaving my tube intact. Since then, Dr. Gehlbach has been very open minded about the path we should take moving forward. He did not come back to me with a set plan. He listened to my questions, concerns, and thoughts. I feel like I am as much a part of my treatment plan as he is.

Costs for IUI have been reasonable. My medications have cost roughly $50 each time. The monitoring and IUI combined has cost around $700.

I have only seen Dr. Gehlbach for my HSG. He was very respectful. It was totally painless too, so he new what he was doing. He was very open to my choices in my care when I told him I wanted to wait a little longer before starting treatment (I’m young and have unexplained infertility). Otherwise I have seen his nurse practitioners. I think if we did more intense therapy or IVF we might see him more.

Be prepared to see the nurse practitioner a lot. They will be your point of contact- at least in the beginning it has been that way for me. But honestly they are very knowledgeable and helpful. Dr. Gehlbach and his staff are nice and reasonable. I appreciated not feeling overwhelmed or scared during such a vulnerable appointment.

Right now I am on my first IUI so it’s clomod 100mg x 5 days. Then, estrogen suppositories. Then, ultrasound. Then, trigger shot. Then, IUI.

I’m paying with insurance so far. I’ve spent a few hundred dollars out of pocket.

Dr. Gelbach was thorough, kind, and put me at ease throughout the initial consultation. I only saw him one time during my time with the clinic, as APRNs seem to do the bulk of the patient face-to-face work.

Make sure to ask any and all questions you may have and advocate for yourself.

I took one round of femara, had an intravaginal ultra sound at day 13 which revealed two very small follicles that weren’t ready for fertilization. I returned 4 days later to discover that one follicle had grown, but still not quite enough, while the other was stagnant. We waited another two days, did a trigger shot, followed by IUI the next day. According to bloodwork, I did indeed ovulate, but it did not result in a pregnancy.

For an initial consultation and one round of IUI, we spend approximately 3k.

I don’t feel like he has a solid understanding of female factors and infertility. If he did, he would know that you can’t treat endometriosis patients with lots of estrogen and get good results. He’d also monitor progesterone levels in a medicated cycle to help increas chances of pregnancy if patients tested low previously. I’m very disappointed in the level of attention given to my care. I had two embryos result and he constantly treated the first step as a “standard” treatment instead of a retrieval for a patient with advanced endometriosis and diminished ovarian reserve. He may have had success with other endo and DOR patients, but I am not one of them that has been able to hold my baby in my arms.

Stop treating each patient with the standard approach for the first round, you need to treat each patient with heir diagnosis in mind and the whole patient for their optimal results. The conservative approach does not work when you only have 1-2 tries for each treatment. And do not negate injectable IUIs bc they cost more than medicated IUIs. Do those extra tests and get a whole picture before going forward. You’re the expert and yet I feel like I have a better understanding of my endometriosis and diminished ovarian reserve than you do. Don’t be skeptical of stepping outside the box when the first approach does not work.

We used letrozole for all of our 7 IUIs. I had 3 mature follicles each time and my husband had very good numbers. Because we always had a good response, they did not want to change to dosage or protocol. I took it beginning on day 3 for 5 days and then went in around day 11/12 for an ultrasound to check follicle response and do a trigger 24-36 hours before the IUI. For the first retrieval we did 10 days of 225 menopur, 225 follistim, added in ganirelix injections after day 5/6, and a lupron trigger. I only had 7 mature follicles, but all 6 eggs they retrieved were mature, all fertilized with ICSI, and then none of them made it to blastocyst by day 6. For our second retrieval we did a “poor responders protocol” for 300 menopur, 300 follistim, microdose lupron twice daily, and a growth hormone. We did a double trigger after 11 days of stims after they added an additional day. We had 9 eggs retrieved, 7 were mature, and while 5 fertilized with ICSI, just 2 made it to blastocyst by day 6. We decided to not do genetic testing. For the first FET, I took estradiol 3 times daily and then after 2.5 weeks, they did an ultrasound to check my lining and added in 10ml PIO injections once a day and 100 mg endometrin twice daily the following day. After 5 days of PIO, we did our transfer of a 5AA embryo. We had a negative beta blood test. The next cycle we did a mock one for an ERA test and endometrial biopsy for inflammation. The ERA showed I needed another day of PIO, but no inflammation was present. We attempted another FET, but because I was in estradiol for over 4 weeks, my body decided I needed to have a period and we had to cancel our transfer. I had big concerns about the long time on estradiol, but was talked through the steps they would take to make sure my lining was healthy for transfer. After a 16 day, very heavy period and 7 days of oral progesterone, we prepped for another transfer. I did the same doses of meds as the first, but added the extra day of progesterone after my second lining check. We had a positive beta at 85, but after 72 hours my hcg level was only at 135 and by the next beta 48 hours later my level had dropped to 100. The following beta confirmed a loss at 26 and I went back one more time to follow my levels down to under 5. We have our follow up on Friday and I consider myself still under his care.

Each IUI we had to pay $380 for the IUI treatment and then $100 for the trigger shot. The oral letrozole was $10-$15 each cycle and our labs and ultrasound were covered by our insurance with a co pay after deductible. Our IVF cycles we took our a cycle package for 2 retrievals and up to 4 transfers for $20,000 and financed it through another company, ARC and NBT Bank. We paid $5,600 for our first cycle stim meds, $8,200 for our stims meds and medications for the second retrieval. Our estradiol and birth control were all covered by my insurance and only cost us $5 each cycle. Our PIO cost $90 for a 20 day supply, the endometrin cost $95 for a 28 day supply. None of our diagnostic testing was covered and we paid $96-$900 for each over the course of 3 years.

I appreciate the single transfer because the ultimate goal is one healthy baby and if you transfer a healthy embryo, it may split into twins already. Double that and it’s quads.

Most treatment is done by nurse practitioners who are great. Dr. Gehlbach did my HSG and was friendly and professional. He explained everything and showed me the results then and there. Eve when I don't see him I know he consults on my treatment plan and helps direct the course of my treatment.

Don't expect to see him all the time.

Dr. Gehlbach began by testing lots of things like thyroid and blood insulin. The initial appointment really spelled out how all the different pieces work together and why some treatments work better for someone with PCOS than others. I did a 5 day round of letrozole first and did not have any follicles grow large enough to trigger. They then did a 10 day letrozole cycle with trigger and IUI. That resulted in a negative test. I just completed another 10 day letrozole cycle and at ultrasound have a large cyst on one ovary so I am doing one month of birth control to suppress the cyst.

Clinic gave a full breakdown of costs for all treatment at first appointment. Small discount given for payment by check vs. Credit card. HSG- $690 plus additional $300+ facility fee for medical center where procedure was performed. Semen analysis- $132. Oral medication cycle with IUI including ultrasound, trigger shot and semen processing - $672. Ovulation induction with IUI including up ton4 ultrasounds and semen processing- $1870.

Dr. Gelbach does a great job of making me feel at ease and comfortable in all of my procedures I have had with him. He answers all of my questions clearly without making me feel like it is a dumb question. after my failed transfer, he was amazing with listening to my questions and setting up a plan with my husband and I so we could keep trying right away. The only weakness (if it is even one) is that some of our conversations seem rushed, but he’s always willing to talk over the phone if a question or concern comes up later.

Dr. Gelbach does not do any fresh embryo transfers. If that is something you are looking for then try a different doctor. He also strongly encourages only single embryo transfers rather than multiples, but will transfer more.

The drugs that I remember before egg retrieval- I was on menapur, gonal f, and cetrotide. These resulted in 11 eggs, 9 viable, and 4 embryos to blast. For the first transfer, I took estradiol, progesterone in oil, and endometrin. The first transfer did not implant. I am having my second fet in 5 days. This time around, we did an endometrial biopsy and after normal results, continued with the same medication plan as last time.

i have only personally met with Dan one time, and that was at my egg retrieval. just to come in and introduce himself and brief us on what was going to happen. He was very nice and a pleasure to be around. But again i only seen him for a short time and then never seen him afterwards.

Don't expect to meet him until later on in your process, most likely IVF only.

they were all scheduled times. I was always in and out of my appointments within 15 minutes of my scheduled time. I never ran into them running late or behind.

most of my costs were ran thru insurance. and depending before/after deductible was met each IUI insemination date cost around $250, monitoring around $100 each visit (depending on bloodwork), IVF process was around $8000 not including meds, IVF Meds thru Avella Pharmacy was around $300 for retrieval and $200 for transfer.

He is very strong willed on only having one embryo transferred. Even due to age it seemed he only would do one.

Dr Gelbach is a kind, knowledgeable doctor. He truly sits with you and listens. He also explains in details procedures and he really cares. Truly happy to work with him to achieve pregnancy. He sat with me and listened to my history, went over treatment and was acommodating. For a doctor to provide you with his cellphone number for you to call him, when anyone that has gone thru IVF knows that we are always spot checking symptoms, overly stress and suffering that was such a relief. After a test he himself called me to discuss the procedure and that he thought it was not necessary to operate and I trust his advice.

Come prepare. Make a list of questions, doubts, concerns. Bring realistic expectations. Be prepare to change plans if need me. Don’t be afraid to ask because you will go home unsatisfied and your experience may not be what you want or need. Speak up. Ask, ask ask. They are there to help you.

IVF/ICSI is our way to conceive. We have come to understand it and have found a good clinic. When we sat with the doctor we went over every little detail and timeline. Medications and possible bumps on the road. Doctor G believes that we need to do a freeze all and a FET later. I couldn’t agree more. I need to allow my body to heal after my so much hormones and stress. We are also doing PGS. We are so happy and bless that our insurance covers some. Sad thing is we are so short on meds.

Not the cheapest clinic but def not the most expensive. Good thing they provided with detail list of prices that they will run thru my insurance. I have a clear view of cost.

Doctor G and I spoke about eSET and we agree that we do not want the possibility of twins or more. Hence why we are doing a freeze all and PGS in hopes we transfer a good quality embryo and implants. We understand the risks and we honestly don’t want a high risk pregnancy.

I actually only met him during my very first visit for the consultation. He did not even do the consultation with me; a nurse did. He popped in the room during my vaginal ultrasound and said hello and introduced himself but then left right away. I have not seen him again since then and I have been going to the clinic for five months now.

I would say not to expect to see Dan Gehlbach more than once until you go into IVF. I personally have only done IUI inseminations and each time, I have only seen his nurses.

I had done most of the infertility testing with my OBGYN and once we got the SA and learned that we had a slight male factor infertility, we were referred to Dan Gehlbach. Since coming to his clinic, we were immediately started on Clomid and did one cycle of just that with natural trying. We then were told that it wasn't going to help us just doing that due to the male factor infertility and we needed to jump to IUI inseminations with Clomid. We are still in the middle of doing IUI inseminations. We have done three and are working on our fourth with zero success thus far. We were told then that we needed to sit down and discuss our options before the fourth IUI results come back. They originally told us that IUI's may take three or four times for them to work. They said they were hopeful that this procedure would work for us and that our infertility issues are mild.

Each of our procedures was around $670.00 per cycle. We ended up using ARC Fertility funding to pay for them. We have done four now so we have a bill of about $2700.00 for the procedures.

I don't have any experience with this procedure or his approach to it.

I believe he tried to the most of his ability. We had 3 chemical pregnancies and a negative blood test with him. I’m now seeing new doc in my new home state. Dr G might not have been as aggressive as he should have been with being flabbergasted with my repeated chemicals.

As with any RE, YOU ALWAYS have to be your own advocate. Talk to the infertility community, google etc. he’s the doc, but you’ve got to pretend you’re also. Also you only really see him at procedures and transfers

I’ve done 4 transfers with him. To be honest it’s to much to type. One thing that stands out is other docs I’ve consulted with feel i was Overstimulated and it MAY have effected our previous embabies. I’ve had 4 chemicals.. but no one can pin point the primary reason

18k for retrieval and first FET 2500$ for each tranfer after. Meds through prescription company

He was highly set one single our 1st tranfer. Since it was a chemical he allowed us to do 2 the next two tries.

Dr. Gehlbach was very personable and nice. He was very straight forward with my fertility diagnosis. After our first treatment didn’t work he suggested we stick with the same plan. That’s when I really felt like the treatment wasn’t being tailored to our specific outcome from the first cycle. I was sent to him due to a tubal problem. Post surgery we were preparing for IVF and found out during the pre testing that I had low ovarian reserve. After the fact I feel like this is something that should have been checked when I walked thru the door the first time.

High dose menopur along with follistim and ganirelix. Used due to my low ovarian reserve. I had seven eggs retrieved, 5 were mature and could be fertalized. Only 3 actually fertilized and only one made it to a five day blast.

Ivf 8,000-9,000 + medication cost 4,000-5,000

At this point in time, I have done 4 IUIs over 6 cycles with Dr. Gelbach's office. I never even met Dr. Gelbach until after the third failed IUI, at which point it's his protocol to bring you in for a discussion of next steps. I did find him knowledgeable and informative at our meeting, but I thought it was crazy that that was the first time meeting him at all. And he never did any part of my procedures or even popped in to say hello and acknowledge that I was a patient.

Ask to have one nurse consistently, or for the doctor to be present. I wasn't proactive enough about it because I'd just assumed there would be some consistency of care.

The nurse that I met at the initial consultation walked me through various tests we could do, but ultimately only recommended a blood work-up and AMH level check for me, all of which came back normal. Without doing any further testing, they recommended Clomid to be followed by IUI. We did 3 rounds of IUI with Clomid, plus 2 cycles of just Clomid because the ovulation was missed. After the third failed IUI, they wanted to schedule a general follow-up with Dr. Gelbach, which as I said, was the first time I'd met him at all. The whole meeting was basically about IVF, which he seemed (seems) to think is the next step. I wanted to try one more round of IUI, which we did, but he switched me to Letrizole for that round.

Each complete round of IUI was approximately $650, with no infertility insurance coverage.

He recommended only ever transferring a single embryo, but I can't recall now what his reasoning was. I do remember it convinced me at the time.

I have found Dr. Gehlbach to have a great beside manner. He was able to explain things thoroughly but also showed compassion. He seems very strategic in what he does and how he treats each patient. I started to miscarry in the night and I paged him and he immediately called me back. He calmed me down and offered to get me in first thing in the morning. I feel like this is what sets him apart.

To be open to all forms of treatment. If you have questions ask them. The staff at Midwest Reproductive is really there for you.

I started at the office and they ran a few more blood tests and completed the HSG test. After this I did my 4th round of Letrozole with 5mg and was pregnant. Unfortunately, I had a miscarriage. We tried one more round of this dose and intercourse and it did not take. We decided to go ahead and move forward with IUI. Dr. Gehlbach said we might as well up our chances the best we can. We also raised my dosage to 5mg of Letrozole for 10 days. Since this we have completed 5 IUI's all to which have been successful. We are considering at 6th and then we plan to move onto IVF. Most people move on to IVF after 3-4 round but since we have gotten pregnant we figured there is no harm in waiting it out a couple more months.

My only experience has been with IUI. Ultrasounds are around $300 IUI with ultrasound and inesminations are around $650 The IVF procedure with medication is around $15,500

I am not an IVF patient yet, but I do know that Dr. Gehlbach prefers to do a single embryo transfer. He says it is often just as successful over time as transferring two. He also believes he wants a healthy baby and a healthy pregnancy for mom. He wants patients to be successful but also safe. Multiple pregnancies often have higher risks.

I only saw Dr. Gehlbach three times during my treatment. Once during my initial consult, once during an IUI, and then once during an HSG. He was nice when I saw him, but I hardly ever saw him, and I definitely felt like he wasn't really involved in my care. All other care was administered by the nurse practitioners.

That you likely won't work with him directly. He's just the person who does the more complex procedures and writes the scripts.

I did eight IUIs with donor sperm. Every cycle was clomid + metformin and trigger, with an insemination at around 36 hours past trigger. The only other treatment option offered was IVF.

IVF was quoted as 13k plus meds. Donor eggs were quoted as 20k not including meds or transfer. Each IUI ran about $700 plus meds.

He was very open with us right from the beginning that IUI probably wouldn't work for us, and recommended we do IVF right away. When I stated I didn't feel comfortable diving right into IVF and wanted to try IUI first, he didn't shame me or make me feel like I was making the wrong decision after he had told me it probably wouldn't work for us (it didn't.) after our first IVF unexpectedly ended in a chemical pregnancy, we sat down and had a meeting as to possible reasons why the cycle had resulted that way. Instead of giving me the "well, sometimes it just doesn't work" speech, he already had a plan of additional testing he suggested to get to the root of the problem. When I also opened up discussion about further testing I was interested in, he was very agreeable to my suggestions. The additional testing we discussed showed diagnoses that were preventing our IVF from being successful. After fixing those problems, our second FET was successful! I had to have a surgical endometrial biopsy and hysteroscopy done as part of the additional testing, and he even gave my husband his personal cell number to call in case I had any complications once we got home after surgery. He is very personable and I really, truly felt like he cared about helping us realize our dream of becoming parents.

Choose him! His office and staff are amazing, from the secretary all the way up to Dr. Gehlbach himself.

Both of our IUIs were with letrozole, with HCG trigger 36 hours beforehand, with 21D progesterone check to ensure I had ovulated. For IVF, his office chooses a freeze-all cycle to minimize risks of complications of OHSS after retrieval to help your body recover to make it a healthy environment to accept embryos. The drugs used for stims were folistim, ganirelex, menopur. (It's been a while since our retrieval, so hard to remember the specifics) I also believe there was one dose of an antibiotic involved before retrieval. Monitoring was every 2-3 days to monitor follicle growth and check e2 levels. Medications were adjusted according to how rapidly e2 levels were rising. For FET, the drugs were baby aspirin daily (taken until first ultrasound confirms heartbeat), estradiol tablets 3x/day (continued through 10 weeks of pregnancy), and closer to/after FET, Progesterone IM shots and crinone vaginal gel (progesterone) daily through 10 weeks of pregnancy.

My insurance does not cover any part of fertility treatments, so most costs were OOP (my insurance would cover lab draws and monitoring appointments, but not the actual procedures). I believe each IUI was ballpark $600. IVF was around $1500 down payment if I remember correctly, $4500 for medications, around $3000 for genetic testing (optional) and we financed around $8000 through ARC that ended up covering both FETs and some additional unforeseen testing

Dr. Gehlbach very strongly preferred single embryo transfer. Our first FET, we chose single embryo transfer (resulted in chemical pregnancy). For our second FET, Dr. Gehlbach very strongly recommended we transfer one embryo again, but said he would be open to transferring two given our history, so we chose two embryos for our second FET.

Dr. G was not available at every appointment, and one time he actually set a timer to tell him when time was up. Most of the appointments were with the nurse practitioners, who I got to know very well. There were so many appointments that I knew most of them by name by the time we had the egg transfer. It was frustrating to have only 1 viable embryo after so many injections and months of trying to conceive with IUI's, but we had been warned to try IVF earlier and we declined to save money. I wish we had listened to them sooner and not been in such denial about our chances of conceiving.

Ask him to give you the best chances, not the least amount of intervention. He is good at setting your expectations.

We transferred from a different clinic and immediately I was put on twice the dose of Clomid as the previous doctor had given. It resulted in 3 viable eggs on the first try.

We had excellent insurance, so the costs were less than some. Our IUI's and Clomid cost us about $5,000. When we switched to IVF it was closer to $20,000 all in.

Dr. G discouraged us strongly, from transferring more than 1 embryo, despite our desire to try for twins. He was very clear about the risks to child and mother with multiples. In the end, we only had 1 viable embryo, so it did not matter anyway.

Dr Gehlbach was nice and straight to the point. What bothered me the most about him was I was scheduled to have fibroids removed and during my surgery he removed my Fallopian tubes without my knowledge or family’s knowledge. This made things a bit rocky but I still trusted his opinion. Also, with the Bravelle recall I felt that he would not have brought up the fact that this potentially added to my failed IVF cycle. I had to mention this issue in order for it to be discussed.

He’s good, but I just wish our conversations weren’t so doctor/patient but friend/confidant.

My first cycle called for Bravelle (pre recall), along with other injectible drugs. When I came in for my retrieval I was told that my hormone levels were too high and that I couldn’t do a fresh transfer. My 10+ eggs resulted in 2 viable embryos. Both embryos were transferred resulting in a negative pregnancy test. With no embryos left to transfer I had to start from scratch. By my 2nd cycle, Bravelle was recalled and Dr Gehlbach replaced that with a different combo of drugs. I don’t recall the names. At retrieval, Dr Gehlbach suggested that I freeze my 5 embryos and transfer at a later date. I transferred 1 embryo which again resulted in a negative pregnancy test. I transferred 2 of my frozen embryos in Sept 2016 which resulted in a singleton pregnancy with live birth in May 2017. I have 2 frozen embryos remaining.

$15,850 (approx) for IVF cycle not including drugs $420 embryo storage

He always suggested 2 embryos for all of my transfers. I agreed.

I only saw him for my HSG. I was told he reviewed the calls and appointments with the practitioners. I changed REs to another doctor - I saw him at both of my initial consults appointments and would have seen him with every visit.

See another RE. He blanket treatments his patients. He only looked at my AMH to discover I had DOR. He didn't look at my FSH, which was high. I should have NEVER been pushed to do 6 rounds of clomid / 3 with IUIs. I think because of the high clomid use, my AMH dropped from a 0.91 to a 0.31 in a YEAR. This was my precious time that IVF with my own egg could have worked. I should have started with IVF - and he should have tested my FSH to see my egg quality was low.

He treats everyone the same. Makes everyone do several IUIs, if those don't work you have to get an HSG. Then you move on to IVF. I asked them if they had to put me on BCPs for an IVF cycle, because I had read it causes some women with DOR to have worse results. The nurse refused to answer me and told me to make an appointment with a practitioner.

I wasted so much money doing IUIs that would have never worked with my bad eggs. Also, since my eggs were bad and I should have gone straight to IVF, there was no point in spending the almost $1000 on an HSG.

As stated before, I never met the doctor, only the nurse practioners. Even the initial consult was with an NP. For me, meeting the doctor behind the practice seems necessary. I don't feel as if things were adjusted to meet my needs as a patient. It was as if the nurses had to follow a protocol. I was attempting to get to the point of an iui but wasn't able to. They suggested I jump straight to IVF like it wasn't a big deal. My insurance doesn't cover anything so I'm hesitant to go back without a second opinion.

Ask questions! And request to meet the doctor.

I was put on letrozole 2.5mg initially for five days, I believe. Not a good response twice with this treatment. I was put on 5mg after, I think and then the time of taking the medication was extended to 10 days. I was able to do a trigger shot once, but the other two cycles I didn't respond. There were no other suggestions, treatment alterations, medications, vitamins or anything given to me. Except to move on to IVF.

There was an initial consult fee...not sure what the amount was. I spent about $330 per ultrasound, even if a second was needed two days later, which I did twice. $95 for the trigger shot. I had an hsg also, which i believe I paid quite a bit for. I had treatment June-October.

He is very intelligent and kind. The entire process and all of the risks were thoroughly explained to both my husband and myself. We felt confident going into our procedures and after our first miscarriage he course corrected and we tried something different which resulted in the live birth of my daughter. He is a problem solver and will not to do the same things over and over expecting a different result. He will tweak things until they are just right for you and your unique situation. If ever I did not want to deal with a nurse or another staff person I could request to talk to him directly and he would always call me back in a reasonable amount of time. It was clear that he is passionate about his work.

Just ask for what you need. He was accommodating to all of our requests but unless you ask or request otherwise he will move forward in the direction he is already planning on.

He recommended freezing all embryos prior to transfer. I do not remember his reasoning behind this. I was on progesterone, baby aspirin, and a vaginal suppository before, during, and after the transfers. We miscarried twins at 8 weeks after my first cycle so he decided to increase and lengthen the medications during and after my second transfer and this resulted in the live birth of my daughter.

Roughly 16k for one egg retrieval and two embryo transfers. There were other costs associated with additional meds and appointments to deal with our miscarriage.

I've only ever done a multiple embryo transfer. I requested transferring three but he recommended only two at the most due to the risks of possible complications with three and stated that based on research transferring three does not improve your chances anymore than transferring two. We trusted his knowledge and judgment and moved forward transferring two.

Dr. Gehlbach was always compassionate, clear and honest with us. We had a diagnosis of unexplained infertility, essentially, so treatments recommended were completely based on what the doctor thought was best. We had an IUI cycle where there were too many eggs near maturity and he made the decision to cancel the cycle - this reinforced that he is a conservative doctor that had my/our best interest and safety in mind. We always felt that Dr. Gehlbach's number one goal was to help us build a family and that he'd do so in a logical, proven manner. He's smart and kind. He's the doctor that I hold up as a gold standard for other doctors.

Listen to his advice. He knows what he's doing. If you have any qualms, ask for patient recommendations.

When we sat down with Dr. Gehlbach, I'd already had a few Clomid cycles with a terrible OBGYN. Dr. Gehlbach ran the appropriate tests to check both me and my husband out and we came up with unexplained infertility. The doctor developed a four step plan that we stuck to over the next four years - I think I still have the handwritten plan somewhere. After the testing, with the knowledge that Clomid alone hadn't worked, we did a number of IUIs. Those were highly monitored, we used Clomid and femara, and we were keeping a close eye on sperm counts. Those were picture perfect, but didn't work. We did a laparoscopic surgery to rule out endometriosis or any other impediment to pregnancy. It went well, but not much was found (a tiny bit of endo). Lastly, the doctor suggested IVF and we waited a bit, but IVF is not only a means to a pregnancy, but it's also a great diagnostic tool since the conception process occurs outside of the body. We were incredibly lucky to achieve a pregnancy with our first IVF cycle and transfer. We also had embryos to freeze and did so. When we were ready to add to our family, we attempted a FET cycle that ended with a negative pregnancy test. With that result, Dr. Gehlbach altered the protocol to include an endometrial biopsy that gave us another pregnancy with our second FET. We are now the parents of two beautiful sons thanks to Dr. Gehlbach and his staff at Midwest Reproductive Center.

I've been with two different insurances and one covered 50% of diagnostic testing and the other covers nothing related to infertility. I think that IUIs cost us about $250/each, including ultrasound monitoring, not including medications. Semen analysis was $150. I can't remember what the testing, HSG or laparoscopic surgery cost, but my insurance covered all at 50%. Our first IVF cycle cost about $12k - we declined genetic testing. Both FETs cost between $4500-5k. There were a lot of other incidentals and I was able to use funds from both a flexible spending account and then a health savings account (pretax dollars, some employer contributed).

As I said, I was highly satisfied with my experience as a patient of Dr. Gehlbach. He was clear and thorough in explaining everything to us. He treated us with compassion and respect. He was warm and kind and caring. He was always there for us when we needed him. He was excellent!

Make sure you are very clear in the acceptable number of eggs retrieved and fertilized. I am not sure if this is negotiable or not because doctors always want to go for the highest success rate. I happened to be very fertile and ended up with 25 eggs that translated into 9 embryos available for transfer and this was a source of worry for me as I did not want any of my embryos destroyed or adopted out. In the end, we ended up with one set of twins and one singleton using all 9 of our embryos, so that was a perfect result for us. However, if you are only trying for one or two children, that might be too many eggs/embryos for you. Just be sure to have this discussion beforehand, particularly if you do not feel comfortable discarding or donating your embryos.

3/08 – Initial consultation with Dr. Gehlbach 4/08 – First semen analysis (to determine if low sperm count was the problem) 5/08 – Husband’s initial blood work (test for HIV, Hepatitis, etc.) 5/08 – Second semen analysis 5/08 – Second meeting with Dr. Gehlbach 6/08 – Third semen analysis 7/08 – Wife’s initial blood work 8/08 – Bought first medication (Baby aspirin, which I had to take once a day until after conception, and a birth control pill, which they used to regulate my cycle in preparation for IVF) 9/08 – Husband met with doctor for semen analysis consultation; purchased IVF package from company called ARC (package included some IVF procedures and some meds); 9/08 – Appointment with Dr. Gehlbach 10/08 – Saline sonogram; this was also the day the nurse showed us how to do all the different kinds of shots, so we both had to go to this appointment 10/08 – More blood work (they repeat it when you’re about to start IVF) 10/08 – Started first shots (subcutaneous Lupron) 10/08 – Stopped birth control pills 11/08 – Started second shots (subcutaneous Bravelle) and adjusted first shots (Lupron) 11/08 – First pre-conception ultrasound 11/08 – Second pre-conception ultrasound 11/08 – Third pre-conception ultrasound; did subcutaneous “trigger shot” (Ovidrel) 11/08 – Embryo transfer (2 embryos transferred); started the inter-muscular shots (Progesterone) 11/08 – Embryo transfer follow-up 11/08 – Wife admitted to ER for ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome (OHSS), put on complete bed rest 11/08 – Blood test shows possible pregnancy 11/08 – Pregnancy confirmed 11/08 – Released from hospital; started subcutaneous Lovenox shots (to prevent blood clots caused by inactivity) 11/08 – Wife admitted to ER again for OHSS 11/08 – Released from hospital 12/08 – Met with Dr. Gehlbach for first post-conception ultrasound (twins confirmed); taken off of complete bed rest (still not allowed to drive or work) 12/08 – Second post-conception ultrasound (fraternal twins confirmed) 12/08 – Allowed to start driving again and return to work 12/08 – Third post-conception ultrasound; stopped the Lovenox shots 1/09 – Last day of Progesterone shots 1/09 – Fourth post-conception ultraound 1/09 – Last day of Prometrium pills 2/09 – Fifth post-conception ultrasound 3/09 – Sixth post-conception ultrasound (two boys confirmed) 3/09 – Admitted to hospital for abdominal pain (dehydration); seventh post-conception ultrasound confirmed twins were doing fine 3/09 – Eighth post-conception ultrasound 7/09 - Healthy full-term twins delivered

Dr. Gehlbach was a godsend in this area. We initially wanted 3 embryos transferred but he talked us into 2. We ended up having twins and were very glad we had listened to the doctor and avoided a higher potential for triplets. We discussed the number of embryos to transfer at every stage and we agreed with the doctor each time.