New Hope Fertility Center

I had renewed hope after seeing him as he was confident that we could use my eggs as opposed to donor even tho my first RE at the age of 30 had told me I needed to move to donor eggs. What he explained made sense but then I felt rushed into an egg retrieval that I didn’t feel confident would work considering the cycle before (my cycles are very unpredictable) they thought I had two cysts. Then 9 days later they thought they were eggs and good to retrieve and we went in and got nothing.

He has great bedside manner but I am unsure that he really has the best course of action as a physician. He is willing to try unconventional things.

He had me try a 14 day course of BC pills in an attempt to lower my FSH. The last BW I had done 2 months prior was 79. I had to stop after 11 days as I had gained 9 lbs. Coming back in after that my FSH was down to 10 and I don’t remember the last time it was that low. At the ultrasound they thought I had two cysts. I had a period. And came back in for more BW and ultrasound on CD 9 after taking estrace for 14 days and they said I was good to go and rushed me in for an egg retrieval 2 days later. Turns out as I suspected they were still the two cysts from before. So we got nothing.

Dr Olcha was my 2nd doctor here. He came in to explain how they couldn’t do retrieval the next day (what would have been my 1st) since I had ovulated…Orlissa didn’t work for me. He explained to me in 5 mins more than my prior doc at same clinic had explained to me in 2 months with her. He gave me options (clomid to grow rest of follicules vs timed intercourse which he recommended the later). I had a consultation with him since I noticed he was an RE & I just kept thinking of how different (good) I felt with him vs my prior doctor. 10 seconds into the meeting I started crying…it was like all my walls came down & I felt safe…I felt I could ask him and I wasn’t being rushed. He said “don’t cry, you are going to make me cry!”…something my prior doc would have NEVER said. I knew right there he saw me as a person, a human, not just another body. He went on to explain the whole process, calm/not rushed, would draw as he explained, talked in simple terms so you can understand. He looked at my prior results & immediately said what needed to be tweaked. On my 1st egg retrieval – it ended up being an empty follicule (Cyst). Again he came to give me the bad news (vs sending a nurse). He knew my plan didn’t cover it & it was all out of pocket so he said he would process it thru my medical insurance as a cyst removal and if they covered it, I would get a credit with New Hope. That was the case which was a $1250 relief I could use towards next procedure. This also was my 1st retrieval ever. He kept me so calm, telling me what he was doing as he was doing it. That helped a lot! He said we would grow the remaining ones (lutheal fase & plan of action) On my 2nd retrieval, I had 2 eggs retrieved, 1 fertilized. It didn’t make it to day 7. He said he would call me but since we had a consultation he figured he explained 1:1. Again he explained everything so clearly going step by step of the process & where my embryo stopped growing. I literally leave his office with so much hope every time since he explains every step & he has a plan of action already. He makes me feel safe & taken care of. He works weekends which is great since less people there. When I get monitoring (blood & sonogram) – I usually see him right after looking at my results & getting to plan of action. He sometimes will either come in during or after the monitoring and answer any questions. He is very hands on. My prior doc I was with for 2 months & saw her twice (1st consultation + a meeting scheduled by me). With Dr Olcha I’ve seem him almost every time I’ve been there & If I don’t, I get very detailed emails from his nurse support team with his recommendations. Im so happy I switched to him. He is the reason I have hope & feel like I can trust the science. That he is looking out for me & doing what is best for me. Its truly customized & making changes as we go & know more. He is night and day from my prior doc & I will recommend him to ANYONE (I already have). He is the best combination of knowledgeable, calm, compassionate, very good at explaining…..he is the PERFECT COMBO OF SCIENCE MEETS HEART! I feel so lucky God put him on my path. I trust he will get me there

Ask him anything. He will explain and you will feel so much better after.

1st retrieval was a cyst so we grew the remaining follicles. He tweaked the Clomid dosage (from 100mg from prior doc to 50 mg)...not sure if since I was in lutheal phase. Next cycle he might do clomid + injectables (Im doing "mini ivf")

super well oiled machine. Window is 7am thru 1pm....7-9am if you want to speak to a doctor. I would get in 7:45 and be our by 8:30-8:45 in time to get to work. Super easy

retrieval - 1,250 fertilizing egg to embryo - 1,500 Trigger shot - $100 Monthly monitoring - 200-250/month (my health plan covers 80% so I guess cost would be 1k if not)

I was at New Hope for 2 months before switching doctors (from Lipkin to Dr Olcha…did a review for him too). I had a consultation with her and she seemed cold, robotic, very factual which is fine, answering questions with a smirk (ego type of laugh)…I felt like I was just one more for her. It was our 1st meeting & not even 5 minutes in she said “You know….you don’t have to take so many notes…we are the experts, you need to trust”. I explained that I do that anywhere for future reference in case I forget. When asking about retrieval & if she would do all my procedures she laughed and said “no there is a group of doctors here & depends who is assigned for it that day. But don’t worry (insert laugh)…’it’s a very easy procedure – anyone can do it” (thought it was very unprofessional & didn’t like fact she thought this was a joke. For someone who’s never done this, it’s a pretty big deal specially the 1st time. She did not give me that comfort security feeling at all. On our 2nd meeting (which I scheduled since after 2 months I hadn’t seen her yet since our original consultation), I had a list of questions. I felt rushed & was trying to get as much in since I could feel her being annoyed. One of my questions was “why where we doing “mini ivf vs. regular ivf?”. Her response was “because we cant create something out of nothing”…after this I froze, felt shocked & realized no point in asking more questions. I felt like crying. I realized then that she did not care for me. She did not believe she could get me pregnant. I was just one more…one more body. I asked what was my ovarian reserve & she said it should be 4-5 follicles per ovary so yours is low even for your age”. I asked my new doctor the same question a month later & he said it was consistent with my age (2-3 total). Our 2nd meeting was also when I found out by a nurse I was pregnant but when talking to Dr Lipkin 5 mins later as she explained “well you are ..except you are not”…she had no compassion when telling me, just told me I had a chemical pregnancy and happens to a lot of women. I left the clinic and had to google what a chemical pregnancy was since still wasn’t very clear. I had a trigger shot & came next day to confirm retrieval. It turned out I had ovulated so missed the chance. The doctor that came in to explain is the one who became my new doctor (Dr Olcha – did review for him here too). She never called me or emailed me. After 2-3 weeks post that event & not hearing from her plus all reasons above, I decided to switch to Dr Olcha & Im soooooo glad I did. The experience has been night & day. Anytime I talked to friends who had gone thru this process they would ask me questions & I could not answer. I had lists of questions for my doctor yet felt like I was just one more, going for blood work & sonogram but no real doctor connection, a doc looking out for me & really watching/customizing my case. The clinic is super efficient but her bedside manners are not the best. A friend of mine who had her wife pregnant there said the same thing…bedside manners are lacking. Dr Lipkin – THUMBS DOWN big time. Big disappointment, big waste of time. Dr Olcha (separate review) – THE BEST! So happy I made the switch. They are night & day & he is pure LIGHT

She has no bedside manners, not compassionate. if you care to have someone who has your best interests, actually cares, is compassionate - I would NOT go with her. Advice - schedule consultations once a month or whenever you need them since she wont....she relies on nurses to send email with recommendations but not much personal touch/interaction from her side.

trigger shot $100 never got to retrieval since I ovulated. before my next cycle/retrieval I switched to Dr Olcha thank God!

Dr. Merhi did my transfer that resulted in my little one - so I will forever be grateful. He has a great bedside manner and is very personable and obviously he is skilled at transfers. A year or so later, when I went back to try for number two, my transfer with him did not succeed (not saying it was anything he did, could have just been the odds game). Then I decided to try to create more embryos, and had a failed attempt on a cycle. When I discussed the failed IVF attempt, he really didn't offer any tweaks or adjustments to my protocol. It was kind of - it is what it is at your age. You just need to try again and maybe you will get a good egg next time. I felt like this was a bit disappointment. I'm not sure how knowledgeable he is on the various protocols and research being done in the infertility areas.

Do your research, ask a lot of questions, demand that a specific doctor follow your protocol.

Mini-IVF: clomid, letrozol and follistim, followed by Ovidrel as a trigger shot. For the transfer, progesterone suppositories and estrogen pills.

Egg retrieval & fertilization (excluding monitoring and drugs) ran around $4500 (with anesthesia). This was pretty reasonable comparatively.

Dr. Merhi transferred 2 normals for me -- ended up with one baby.

He is very nice but consultations with him seemed rushed. He didn't really ask questions or informed us much what was coming next. He started us off with an IUI (natural cycle) which didnt work. We moved on to Mini IVF and he never called, emailed, or followed up with me before or after IVF. At this point I dont even think I am his patient.

Be prepared to not see him, he will not follow up with you.

Dr.Merhi began with a natural IUI cycle since I already ovulate on my own. I dont know why I dont get pregnant. After it failed he didnt call me or follow up. I called the clinic and told him I wanted to do IVF which his answer was ok no problem and just sent me to a coordinator to explain meds for IVF. I was on clomid 100mg and Gonal F for about 10 days. Again, didnt see him or hear from him. Retrieval was coordinated by nurses and another RE in the clinic was the one to do the procedure.

Monitoring was the best part of this experience. Everyone is so nice and efficient

IVF-4000 Medications- Gonal F and Clomid- 1500 Monitoring per month 800 IUI 800 Egg Transfer 3000 (Havent done this yet but we have to pay it soon) 750 PGS Testing per embryo... we are doing 3 embryos 2250 in total

He's very knowledgeable and does cutting edge stuff. However he's not very present. I would like to be able to see my doctor more often or feel like I'm being heard. Most of my questions were answered by ultrasound techs. Also because I understood the plan for the day I have found myself asking for things I was told during the previous appointment, that the people I interacted with on the day of were not aware

Ask for a full explanation of the pros and cons of each step or procedure

We did an ultra mini IVF cycle which involved clomid and femara tabs only. I was able to produce 4 mature eggs which all got fertilized, however I ended up with one very good grade blastocyst. We also did PGS testing for aneuploidy which came back aneuploid. I think I shouldn't have done PGS testing on my only blastocyst especially since I have never had a miscarriage. I was able to get them to do a saline sonogram which showed i had a possible polyp and was then scheduled for hysteroscopy.

Reasonable. My ultra mini IVF so far has cost about 10k

Dr. Makarov is very nice and she helped me understand how the whole IVF journey would go as it was my first time. She encouraged us to switch our insurance company so that we could have more IVF cycles for the new year which we didn't realize was an option. A lot of times I felt a little lost as to what the big picture plan would be which I guess can be the nature of IVF.

Understand that NHFC is a very very busy clinic that specializes in 'natural IVF'. You may be someone who won't need too much meds/stimulation to be successful but if you're like me (DOR), you may need more and I wish I would have figured this out earlier and started somewhere else.

Monitoring was any time from 7am-2pm during the week and 7-12pm on the weekends. There were a lot of different ultrasound technicians that would perform ultrasounds when the doctor was too busy or wasn't in (on the weekends). The clinic seemed to hire a bunch of new technicians when I was going there and it just felt like so many different people were caring for you that I would worry info would be lost among all of these moving parts.

He is very knowledgeable and he doesn’t turn you away if you are over 40. In my case he told me egg freezing should be my number one priority. He said I can make you have a baby at 55 but at 55 I cannot retrieve eggs. Also he suggested MINI IVF based on my endometriosis in which I had surgery for and did a successful retrieval 7 days after my NYU surgery to remove 1 Fallopian tube 2 fibroids and polyp. Dr Zheng doesn’t give up on you and his office is innovative and high tech so they are current in the latest advancements in reproductive medicine.

Make sure you have the time to put into the process because right before egg retrieval you have to go to the office for daily monitoring which is time consuming. The office runs well like a well machine you can be in an out and they have great refreshments. It’s a very comfortable and nice office.

Low dose birth control pills (1/2 a pill for 14 days) 5 - 7 days of Clomid 50mg 1/2 a pill, lupron trigger shot then egg retrieval for MINI IVF. THIS PROTOCAL WILL ONLY YIELD 1 or 2 eggs for retrieval however as a more natural cycle it will yield quality over quantity

Well oiled machine

$800 per month unlimited monitoring $1250 egg retrieval $800 for genetic testing $2700 for embryo testing

Not yet

He was friendly, personable, and cared about me as a patient. Flexible and willing to try things that I wanted, even when he didn’t think they would make a difference. Very responsive to emailed questions.

make sure you request that he (and not the general team) follows your case.

Mini ivf - 150 gonal F, 50 clomid, 2.5 letrazole. Goal was quality over quantity.

An efficient well oiled machine. Your first name appears on tv monitors in the large waiting room letting you know when to go back for bloodwork, ultrasound, or billing dept.

$4000 for a retrieval freeze all cycle plus $800 for 1 month of monitoring.

1 PGS embryo. Multiple embryos if untested.

Knowledgable and experienced doctor but overall care lack communication and interpersonal care.

dont expect to be updated about course of treatment and explained why certain procedures are done.

it was definitely expensive for just bloodwork and sonogram

Straight forward information, no over blown promises and clear responses to questions. We had to travel into NYC and he made an extra effort to work with our schedules on weekends. He was able to help make my wife feel like her questions mattered

make sure you ask questions to ensure you get the most support.

don't fully remember the details of the IVF at this time

we had a grant from NYS

We did genetic screening and were able to select the most viable embryo and had a successful implantation based on the details the doctor gave us

Dr. Zhang was very friendly and extremely smart. I got the feeling that he is very busy though and I my biggest fear with New Hope is that I would get lost in the mix. However, Dr. Zhang is very personable, kind and seemed confident with his plan for me.

Know that you will be seeing ultrasound techs and not the doctor very often.

He recommended a mini IVF because of my age (39) with PGD testing and then eSET.

My insurance covered everything.

He was very much in favor of eSET due to risks of multiples.

He does not look at every case thoroughly and adjust treatment accordingly. He changes treatment plan with high risk. In one of my cycles, he ignored a dominant follicle and gave me clomid to grow the other follicles. When the other follicles did not grow, he advised to retrieve the dominant one which was 30 mm and rotten

Don’t put lots of hope.

I’ve done mini Ivf and natural ivf. The procedures were good. However there were a lack of proper data analysis to customize and alter treatment

Each cycle is about 5550 without medication

Dr Zhang came highly recommended by my GYN. However I hardly see him and he talks really fast, at times it’s hard to understand him. I put my trust in him through my GYN. I mostly see NP and ultrasound tech. They ensure me that Dr Zhang goes over my chart but then again I don’t know if it’s him or someone else.

Don’t expect to see him on your visits

Birth control pills, clomid, Ganirelix injection.

I spent over $25,000 already

I only have one normal Pgs tested embroyo

Dr Zhang is very knowledgeable and did not push any extra procedures. He was straight to the point. He explained everything that was going to happen. If i needed to speak to him in person he was usually around in the morning when I was having monitoring.

He is straight to the point.

We did Mini IVF and ICSI because of male factor infertility

Monitoring was from 7am-1pm which was very convenient. I would go right before work and make it in time. Results of blood tests were given within 4-5 hours and clear instructions were always provided.

They prefer one embryo at a time but we chose two and they let us

There were certain costs i felt were unecessary, but NH worked with me to adjust the bill. While my plan at the time was to freeze my eggs, I would have liked time for a one on one discussion on my infertility issues in depth.

Clearly communicate with the doctor regarding short and longer-term fertility goals, and about any issues you might have. NH is flexible and can work with you.

The egg freezing procedure costed me around 6k per cycle - much less than the 10k on average.

Dr. Makarov was very knowledgeable and professional during my entire process. I trusted her and I got the results I wanted on the first try! I’m very satisfied. I would recommend her to anyone who is interested in doing the iv

The grant was very helpful. I would not have been able to proceed without it.

Dr. Merhi reviewed my history and on our first visit knew immediately what the challenge was. He caught and diagnosed what was missed twice, by another very reputable IVF clinic. It was confirmed during surgery and he corrected the problem. We had gone through 11 unsuccessful IVF's and 3 IUI's at another facility and had just about every test imaginable. We were told there was nothing wrong but there obviously was and hadn't we seen Dr. Merhi, we believe we would never have discovered the true reason for the infertility. And now that is had been surgically corrected, we are pregnant!

Dr. Merhi is kind, compassionate, funny and extremely knowledgeable. He may not always be available as most doctors cannot be, but his staff is great at getting back to you. He does call and reach out which was great, as our previous doctor didn't typically do that. We felt he was also on point with all the new technology, studies, standards of practice etc and did not subscribe to anything that was not proven or did not have statistical significance.

We did donor egg cycles What was different vs. other donor cycles I'd done at another facility was: addition of low dose prednisone, progesterone suppositories, no lupron, no lovenox, no birth control pills prior to cycle initiation, Estradiol throughout. On the second transfer, addition of 1 ml of progesterone sub q.

The costs for self pay were more reasonable and fair than other clinics in other states. Also, I was delighted that we did not have to pay for everything up front all at once as we had to do at another clinic. They have a fair pricing and payment structure.

Due to my age, Dr. Merhi advised on single embryo transfer. He educated us fully on the risks so we could make an educated decision.

We initially began the IVF journey at the New Hope clinic with another doctor. However, my OBGYN doctor had recommended Dr. Merhi, and I had felt put off by some of the communication with the other doctor, so we decided to switch to Dr. Merhi. I am so grateful that we did. Along our journey, there were definitely unexpected twists and turns -- a smaller number of eggs than expected reacting to the stimulation medication, a need for me to have a hysteroscopy done, uterine lining not thickening up to the desired level by the scheduled date. While we had direct consultations with Dr. Merhi at only some of these junctures, with every one of these "setbacks", Dr. Merhi implemented some kind of solution-oriented strategy to try to obtain a better outcome. Sometimes this meant just continuing medication and waiting a few days for the situation to change, and in other times it was really about building the best possible conditions for a successful transfer. I knew that he was personally checking my charts after every monitoring session I had, so I felt personally cared for. I am a firm believer in doing my own research and making sure that as a patient, I always advocate for myself. I also knew that I could express my worries or doubts to Dr. Merhi and his responses were always honest, but comforting. Is the IVF science perfected for pregnancy to be guaranteed each time? Of course not. But having a doctor who is truly your cheerleader and doing their best to strategize the best scientific road to success is crucial.

Dr. Merhi is busy, busy, busy. There is always a line out the door of patients out the door to see him. If you choose to be treated by Dr. Merhi, I would suggest: - Communicate! Be open about what are your concerns are with your cycle. - Do your own research and always advocate for yourself! Prepare your own questions so you can best make use of the time at the in-person consultations. - Don't be discouraged if you can't always see him in person. We would occasionally see other doctors for consultations just for questions or concerns, if we couldn't see him.

During the retrieval cycles, we used birth control pills, letrozole and Clomid pills, as well as Gonal-F and Cetrotide injections. My second cycle (which was when we had switched to Dr. Merhi) produced better results than the first cycle (with another doctor). I actually asked to be placed on a higher medication dose because I felt that the dosage in the first cycle wasn't stimulating enough follicles -- Dr. Merhi prescribed a higher dose of the Gonal-F and added in some of the other pills, and we were able to retrieve more eggs and create more embryos the second time around. Regarding transfer, I had one failed FET and one successful FET. Leading up to the first FET, I was taking Prometrium (progesterone). After the first failure, Dr. Merhi expanded the medication protocol to include Progesterone in oil injections, a small dosage of Prednisone and baby aspirin. I believe that these medications helped my body to be more prepared to successfully accept the second FET.

It's a pretty efficient monitoring system. Most of the time I was able to be in and out (bloodwork and sonogram) within 20-40 minutes. Once in a while, the wait was so long and I had to check in with the front desk again to make sure they didn't forget about me. Make sure to not be afraid to check in again if you feel that you've been waiting longer than 30 minutes for bloodwork.

We paid out of pocket for costs as our insurance would not cover any of it. Costs, with medication, ran around $10,000 - $12,000 per retrieval cycle. The FET is around $3000. It helped to get medication for a pharmacy recommended to me by a friend (Medcal Pharmacy), which had a special discount with patients from New Hope and also delivered the medications straight to my door, free of charge.

I was told that it was safer for a woman at my age to transfer one embryo. Personally, my husband and I weren't interested in transferring more than that at one time, so we were already on board with Dr. Merhi's approach to eSET.

After my partner and I suffered years of infertility and loss, I prayed to god that he send us an angel. That Angel came in the form of Dr. Olcha. If you go to NH, & you want a Dr. that is intuitive, compassionate, caring, motivated, & will tailor a fertility plan based on YOUR body, your hormones, your #’s, & the right timing, then I please advice you to go to Dr. Olcha. He got me pregnant my 1st round of a FET cycle. I am now nearing my 3rd trimester. I thank him for this rainbow baby that will soon be in our home. He responded promptly to all my emails and actually took the time to call when I needed answers. He is an amazing Dr. and an even better man.

An amazing Dr. best Doctor at the practice.

tailored a fertility plan based on YOUR body, your hormones, your #’s, & the right timing, then I please advice you to go to Dr. Olcha.

Monitoring at nh was good. If you come in early, you are in and out.

Costs were affordable for an iui and ivf treatment protocol.

Dr. Olcha preferred a single embryo transfer but was understanding if I wanted a multiple embryo transfer.

After being told by a different doctor that we would have to use donor eggs in order to get pregnant, despite me being 33 years old and having gotten pregnant with my 2 other children without a problem, we did more research and found New Hope and Dr. Zhang. During initial consult, Dr. Zhang went over the treatment plan, which was just going with my natural cycles and using Clomid to control timing of ovulation. Dr. Zhang told us we’d be pregnant in 6 months. We went through 6 retrievals with 4 viable embryos. Had the first transfer with a 5day frozen embryo and got a BFP! I am now 33 weeks along with a baby girl and have 3 more embryos on ice. I call Dr. Zhang our miracle worker

Be patient with the treatment plan

Dr. Zhang used Clomid with me for all of the cycles

Monitoring hours are 7am-1 or 2pm. Was in and out every time I went in. You get the blood work done, go back into the waiting area and are called in for sono moments later

The cost can’t be beat. Cost of an IVF cycle with Dr. Zhang is close to cost of IUI cycle at other practices

Dr. Zhang recommended a single 5day embryo transfer and that is what we did.

Dr. Merhi was always so kind and encouraging. Even when I got news that wasn’t so great (when I learned of my low AMH, failed iuis, etc) he presented information clearly but when a gentleness that made me feel like he always cared deeply about our goals of growing our family. When our transfer worked he shared in our joy and excitement.

Do not feel the need to interpret every test result- Dr. Merhi will let you know if levels are abnormal or of concern. When monitoring you may not see him as often, but he is still absolutely pouring over the data and making smart decisions based on what he sees. Trust his judgement.

In my protocol for egg retrieval I was on gonal f, cetrotide, and clomid the two weeks leading up to my retrieval (all low doses). For my transfer I followed the procedure with taking estradiol orally and suppositories of progesterone.

Monitoring hours were a little tricky for me because I had to be at work by 8:00 am as a teacher. However, if I arrived around 6:45 I was never late to work and ready to leave the clinic by 7:40.

We’ve paid under 3,000 in total for both the egg retrieval and transfers.

Dr Zang is a realistic Dr. He’s forward thinking and has the capacity to show empathy but also be truthful and weight out all options with you. He’s a man who doesn’t work on taking your money but giving you the results you both desire. A baby. I have nothing but praise and awe for Dr Zang. He is the future of IVF.

Be prepared to hear what you may not want to hear. Dr Zang is a realistic and will only help you and give you solutions he can deliver. Not everyone wants to hear the truth but Dr Zang is about delivering just that.

Mini no invasive cycles. Small doses of drugs. Dr Zang is about quality not quantity of egg reterivels.

The costs are not cheap but get the results you require.

I wanted twins but again Dr Zang wanted me to be a mother and focus on that by only putting one in. The risks are too high with 2 and he made sure to give me the pro and cons of it.

Dr. Merhi was very patient and understanding of my circumstance and ultimately what I had gone through and what I was planning to endure to have a baby. He shared different information with me and had a sense of enthusiasm to work along with me, which encouraged me even more. I would have like to have had more one-on-one time through-out my journey.

You may not get enough one-on-one time

I underwent a mini-IVF, which we utilized letrozole, Chlomid, and injectable hormones prior to the egg retrieval. After the retrieval I was placed on a low dosage of Estradiol and progesterone.

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My costs equated to approximately 5K between doctor visits, actual IVF, medications, and copays

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Dr. Merhi was very hopeful when we met him even though we’d had five failed cycles with two other doctors. We were surprised by his optimism but what won our trust was that he told us what he thought hadn’t worked in previous cycles. He had a completely different philosophy about medications. He felt I’d been given far too much medication and claimed he would not use one very standard medication that I’d been given in 5 other cycles.

He is very trustworthy and truly cares.