New Hope Fertility Center

Any time I asked to see Dr. Merhi, I was scheduled in and able to do so. Only once was he not there and so his team scheduled a phone consult appt with him and he called the very next day. I specifically requested him to be the Dr. to perform my last/most recent IVF transfer with donor egg and sperm, and he made sure to schedule me with respect to his availability. He left no stone unturned to give me all the meds, scheduled appt.'s, consults, etc., to make sure we succeeded this time! I feel he took no issue with my age (47) and was 100% on my team with absolute assuredness we would succeed. If I had any questions, he would slowly spell everything out for me in a respectful way...even drawing pictures/charts for me in his office. We did succeed and he was genuinely SO happy for me!

Ask in the beginning what days Dr. Merhi is at the office location you prefer. He goes to two (I think) different locations every week. Be bold with requesting exactly what you need and ask every question you have! Make sure you ask to specifically meet with him. When you do monitoring during their daily hours (7am-12pm), I would get there on the earlier side if you hope to catch Dr. Merhi after your meetings with bloodwork/sonograms. It helps if you do your own research and have specific questions for him re: your own protocol and needs.

I started at New Hope FC in 2016! I met with whomever whenever they were available as I had no idea what I was doing nor what to expect. For a while, I felt I was just a number and on an assembly line. That is, until I met with Dr. Merhi. I started in 2016 with mini-IVF protocol. The plan was to use my own eggs w/ donor sperm. I'll skip the methods used by some of the Dr.'s & go right to Merhi. The meds used for cycles, etc., were pretty much the same w/ all Dr.'s I was using along the way. However, with Dr. Merhi, I began to feel supported and listened to. I began to realize I that if I brought more to the table (the right questions, etc.), he took the time with me, too, to explain things more clearly. When it came the for the egg retrievals, it was ONLY Dr. Merhi's that I felt ZERO pain. The other Dr.'s techniques, etc., I had a lot of pain during the procedures - no joke. After all the cycle efforts using my own eggs (always MY decision to make), I am the one who came to the hard realization that perhaps my eggs weren't viable. I took a break (mid-2017 to Fall 2019). When I returned to my efforts, I came in already knowing I was going to use a donor for eggs (& donor sperm). I only requested Dr. Merhi (after prior experiences w/ other Dr.'s there). Full disclosure: after the time away, new Dr.'s were there as well. I have NO idea how some of them are. I can only attest to my comparison of Dr. Merhi with about 4 others there. I ONLY worked with Dr. Merhi this time around. And - to GREAT SUCCESS!! I am pregnant...1st trimester almost over. :-)

Monitoring hours are very convenient! It is a well-oiled machine. Hours are 7am-12noon. The sooner you arrive, the less time you'll wait. The longest I've waited was about 30 minutes. That was only because I went in closer to 11-12pm time. They are a well-oiled machine. Once you arrive and check-in, you're in line in the order you came.

The billing dept. is VERY good/trustworthy at trying to submit everything to your insurance first. Depending on what your coverage is, the costs of all procedures, monitoring, etc., are comparable to most places. They are reasonable in relation to other places, depending on what you're having done. Not going to lie -- it's EXPENSIVE. But - I feel we're a special case: in the end, after several efforts using my own eggs w/ IUI donor sperm and IVF, we chose to also go with an egg donor. I mean - I could have put this child (the one I'm pregnant with as I type!) through its first two years of college! Some of the meds were covered by my insurance - not all of them. Some of the procedures were covered by insurance - not all of them.

I never talked about this with Dr. Merhi because my wife and I agreed that we'd only ever opt to have ONE embryo transferred at a time. We did not want to risk multiples. It was not ever a topic for Dr. Merhi and I.

Being Dr. Olcha's patient, I knew I was in capable hands. He is extremely optimistic and confident. I really appreciated how quickly he responded to emails, how he called me personally with results, and how he performed almost all of my procedures during my IUI/IVF journey. I would have liked more of an explanation on my different medications and options- like ICSI and Assisted Hatching, prior to my asking. Once I did ask, he went out of his way to explain in detail. Most importantly, he got me pregnant, like he promised!

Come prepared with questions and don't hesitate to be persistent.

I went through one egg retrieval and two frozen transfers with Dr. Olcha. Because I was ovulating on my own, he had me do natural transfers each time. The first frozen transfer failed to implant. The second frozen transfer worked.

Monitoring was a breeze- I just showed up at the office during monitoring times. There are screens that tell you when and what chair to report to for bloodwork, when and what room to go to for sonogram, and if you need to visit billing. I was able to go right around 7am and I would be done with monitoring usually in less than half an hour.

I thought she was direct and clear about what our options were and what our likelihood of success might be. She didn't volunteer information readily, but she answered our questions when we had them. She stayed consistently hopeful and encouraging, even though my numbers might not indicate a lot of cause for hope. She seemed pragmatic and efficient.

Come prepared with questions. She won't volunteer a lot of information if unprompted.

We were doing "mini IVF" which ended up taking multiple cycles just to retrieve a small number of eggs. I thought I would prefer a less invasive approach, then full blown IVF, but in the end, because it required multiple retrievals, it ended up feeling pretty invasive anyhow.

her strength: Shes precise, knowledgeable , very skilled , very friendly, humble, and so passionate about her job. She obviously knows her work and knows what she is doing. She is so quick to give details and handle the patient. She is never hesitant!

To keep up the good job she is doing!

she used mini IVF treatment with minimum medications

it was normal costs

single embryo transfer

Dr Olcha is a caring and excellent doctor. He took over my case after I requested to switch to him from another doctor at clinic. From the very beginning of his care, he made me feel comfortable, and confident in his ability to help me get pregnant. He took the time to give me the true one on one care I was hoping for during this treatment, and always made sure to take the time to answer all of my questions and ease my concerns. Even though he was only my doctor for a short period during the egg transfer and beyond, he made me feel like I had been seeing him for years and treated me like a long time friend. He was always easy to talk to and has a good sense of humor and bedside manner. He is exactly the kind of doctor I wanted to have when I decided to do fertility treatments, so much that I wish he could deliver my baby too! I highly recommend Dr Olcha.

Go into your fertility treatment with high hopes and never stop believing that with the right doctor your baby dreams can come true.

Dr Olcha only performed the egg transfer and follow up post visits. He didn't not give me any meds other than progesterone and estradiol to help pregnancy

$15k

Dr. Merhi and the staff at New Hope were truly amazing. They explained everything clearly and tailored the protocol to meet my needs. I was more successful with their mini-IVF protocol than with my previous 2 cycles of conventional IVF. I would recommend them to anyone!

If you don’t understand something, call and speak to a nurse. They are very helpful!

Dr. Merhi used a mini-IVF protocol where I took clomid and letrozole and then Gonal-F injections for about one week. After that I took medication to prevent ovulation and then a trigger shot before the egg retrieval. For my frozen transfer I took estrogen and then progesterone in oil and progesterone suppositories.

I went to monitoring appointments very early in the morning at both the Manhattan and Long Island offices. Manhattan office is very well run with large monitors telling you where to go for blood work and ultrasound. Manhattan office is much larger than Long Island but often more crowded.

My insurance covered a lot of it but I paid out of pocket for the ozone sauna therapy and the PRP procedure. I also had to pay about $2,000 for the egg retrieval and another $2,000 For transfer.

Extremely thankful to have found Dr. Zhang. He is a pioneer and truly cares for his patients and does not look down on people. Truly wonderful experience. I wish I went sooner. I was hesitant to visit a doctor in the city because of the snobby attitudes, but was completely surprised by Dr. Zhang.

Don't wait, fertility is fragile.

Very efficient and well run. I didn't have to do much, just show up. The phlebotomist knew exactly what test to run the blood for and the whole appointment was very quick.

3-4k for egg freezing

Honest, compassionate and very knowledgeable about his expertise. I never would have believed him if he told me I will get you pregnant but he did and was extremely gentle with the whole procedure. He’s wonderful at his job.

Have faith in your doctor and follow what he tells you and trust the process.

I was in lutueal phase cycle when my eggs were retrieved because my first attempt was not successful. During the luteual phase cycle two eggs were retrieved and one genetically tested embryo day 6 blastocyst was transferred on January 20, I’m 7 weeks pregnant and extremely grateful with outcome.

I was not informed of some procedures but the doctor said he would take care of it for me.

No we did not have elective single embryo. My request was implant the healthiest embryo for implantation

He is one of the best doctor New Hope has. Very patient and when doing Egg retrieval he focus on retrieving max numbers. Also when transferring the embryos he is very delicate and ensures its placed in best position to implant

He will make it happen. Have hope in his regimen they really work

Natural cycle before transferring the embryo. Then taking Estrance and progesterone before the tranfer

It was very convenient and their schedule works very well with working patients

Approx 10k

Both my pregnancy were singleton single embryo transfer

He was one of the only doctors who was open to trying to new things. And exploring possibilities of my failures such as undiagnosed endometriosis and empty follicle syndrome. He worked WITH me. And that felt amazing and we wound up having success

Talk with him. Tell Him your concerns and things you’d like to try. And he likely will be open to it.

Too many to list. But what worked to help with empty follicles was a double trigger

N/A

Dr. Merhi is jovial, and seems knowledgeable about general IVF. But, i'm not confident that he's able to monitor each of his cases individually because of the volume. He also suggests his Ozone Sauna Treatment (Research) 2 times a week for 3 weeks...but it's an additional $1500. Dr. Merhi is nice, but nice doesn't do Individualized care as I thought would happen.

Stay on top of him, and make sure you go to monitoring 7am-9am if you need to talk with him. Other than that you're left to random Dr's or RNs sending follow up emails.

I was never told which specific agnostic or type. Just learning this myself via research. They wanted to do Natural IVF, But I reminded them that I wanted to do Mini IVF. I started with half of Isisbloom BCPs, Monitoring, Chlomid, Letrizol and then Trigger and retrieve. I have to do more rounds of retrieval.

Well oiled machine. Sign in, Screen Monitoring, and name appears on the list.

A little over $6 K total, not including meds $150

They recommend single embryo transfer. I am not at that stage.

Dr Merhi is thoughtful, on top of the latest developments in the field, willing to think outside the box and incredibly supportive. He is very responsive to emails and always made time for me when I asked either via phone or in person. He even dropped everything he was doing on one day to perform an emergency retrieval after my first retrieval didn’t go as planned. He’s been able to adjust along the way while remaining very positive - almost disconcertingly so at times. Very satisfied with him.

Be persistent. He will make time for you but you need to stay in front of him or connect with his coordinator to get on his schedule. He is very busy so don’t be afraid to push!

Mini IVF (clomid, letrozole, 150 follistim) Conv IVF (clomid, letrozole, 225 follistim)

Monitoring hours are very flexible here. Weekdays are 7am - 2pm, weekends are 7am - 12pm which was huge selling point for me. Scans are done by techs and not MDs. Some of were much better than others but nearly all were quite competent.

Consult $350 Unlimited monitoring for 30 days - $800 Retrieval + ICSI + freezing + PGS - 4000

He prefers PGS tested blasts, eSET but is very open to multiple transfers of day 3 or mosaic embryos.

What I says before. She was nice, but not very invested in our success. When we came for the follow up after retrieving the eggs and them being abnormal she hadn’t even looked at the results until we were in her office.

Keep on top of everything. Make sure they are giving you the proper information and that you get it on time.

She never explained why did anything. First cycle started with pills, and didn’t have shots til the end. Resulted in 3 eggs. Next she started with pills and shots. Resulted in 13 eggs. Next round she did pills and 1/2 the amount of shots. Results 8 eggs. Never discussed why the change. Finally after the third round I asked her why she thought we were getting numerous eggs but no normal ones. Her response was she basically didn’t know. It felt like she just hadn’t thought about it.

This was actually great. You had a large window and rarely a long wait time. The Dr did most of the sonograms, if she was there. She only came in 3 days a week. In 3 retrieval she never did ours

It’s was about $6000 plus medication. This was only retrieval. We never got to transfer.

They prefer single

Dr. Merhi is confident and cheerful and I can truly appreciate that feeling of optimism. He did one of my retrievals and it was so painful, but that was perhaps due to a follicule being, as he put it candidly, “in China”. I don’t interact with him as much as I’d like. I really would love more phone calls but I do feel I can assertively seek him out and will be ensured a response.

Prepare yourself for a big clinic. Alter your expectations if you think this will be a more personal exchange. I am having a very different experience than I had with Dr. Davis of RMA but I believe in the clinic’s competence.

Initially, I went in to freeze eggs. Dr. Merhi suggested I fertilize them as he instructed embryos had better survivability. My status with my partner did not allow the confidence to move ahead so I froze eggs. I tried, several months later (after my relationship ended) two donor sperm IUIs (one with Dr. Davis-RMA and one with Merhi’s staff). IUI was unsuccessful and I wasn’t thrilled that the Merhi’s clinic kept me waiting, delayed in the reception area bc of some administrative error. I made a written comment but did not receive a reply. Now, I’ve moved on to create one embryo and one mosaic embryo. I am on the verge of meeting with my doc to talk about the viability of the mosaic. I am surprised I wasn’t told about mosaics in my first fertilization round / genetics testing, but Merhi says that it wasn’t available then.

Generally, these guys are a well-oiled machine. Only once, after many monitoring experiences that went well, did they have an admin issue and make me wait even though I had been cleared by Finance! The nurses providing the sonograms are generally nice and competent.

Insurance is mercifully covering monitoring (I still pay $40 copay). The genetics tests is expensive $2-$5K. The retrievals are $1500-2000.

Merhi will move one at a time. Although, and I will find out, he may move 1 normal and 1 mosaic together.

Dr Merhi was the first doctor in a long time to try to use my own eggs. I was initially going to him for the egg donor program and he told me to try with my own eggs first. When you are with Dr. Merhi he gives you his undivided attention. He answer all your questions and is very personable. He has great bed side manner and makes you feel very comfortable. But yes there is a but.... here are my dislikes... His email response could be better and yes I understand they are busy but isn’t that a part of your job. Also I went two months without seeing him at any of my monitoring although he would provide instructions via email. I am currently still being treated by him so let’s see. I will give another review when everything is completed.

Email! Email! Email! Would be your best form of communication with him.

Dr Merhi is trying a more natural approach. I am currently on estradiol. He also had me take hgh for an 6 week period. Also he provide me with a free trial of ozone therapy for 8 weeks. I also had an ovarian rejuvenation done as well. After six month of not ovulating I finally ovulated two eggs but the second one was too small. They received one egg and that a lot because the first time I had egg retrieval I had no eggs. But my embryo did not make it to blastocyst. I am now back for my second go at it and it has been 5 months since my last egg retrieval.

No complaints

Fairly reasonable

Didn’t get to the point

As a patient, it’s important for me to feel safe and understood. It’s important for me to feel comfortable with people in the clinic and it’s important for me to feel comfortable with doctors. All that I had just said described Dr. Zhang and his clinic. He listens to our frustration and how much impact it’s carrying us and also financially.

To always trust your gut feeling. Listen and ask millions of questions.

I was preparing for retrieval’s of my own eggs (one or two he sees), he uses minimal meds. Trigger shots when it’s time for retrieval in two days , I don’t remember the meds I had taken. For preparing egg donor transfers, I have been taking estradiol, promethium....depends on my blood work result if it needs some adjusting I had taken prednisone, progesterone shot on my butt, baby aspirin, enoxaparin injection on my stomach. Sometimes my lining needs to be thicker so they up my use to progesterone sometimes.

My monitoring experience is great. The ladies who gets my blood has no problem. Although I have small veins, they still manage to get it done. They always ask me if I’m doing ok. As for sonogram, I love the ladies there. So respectful. I get along well with them. They know how hard and how long and our loses. They’ve become my friends there. Always smiling. :) which I love. Makes my day.

We’ve been doing fertility for 9 and half long years. My husband and I have seen numerous doctors. The billing at the Dr. Zhang’s office is very organized. There’s always three there. They know your name and what needs to be paid. They even tell you what it’s for and if the insurance paid or not and explained why. They even have online service to pay online now too. They are friendly. My husband and I pay out of pocket fertility for nine and half long years. For donor eggs we have $13,200 for 6 eggs. Then they tell us how survived. For example, embryologist will email and tell me they get 5 out of 6 ready to be sent out for genetic testing. Before sending we have to pay $750 per embryo to be tested first before being sent out. Ones we do that we have 7-10 days to wait and they will email with results. Then they will email again and tell us how many survived and how many healthy with grades on them and explanation of their grades. So imagine having failed donor eggs many many times $13,200 x 5 times. We are financially medically in debt. We need help!

When we did our transfer in Cancun Mexico, the doctor there transferred four embryos all the time. Out of three cycles, I was pregnant but resulted in 10 week miscarriage. Dr. Zhang and his colleague transfers one embryo at a time per rules. He picks the best embryos for transfers.

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. Zhang is an extremely smart and willing to think outside of the box. I am thrilled I found him when I did, only 1 cycle led to success!! Knowing that he is the owner/founder I understood he would be very busy but trusting a doctor of his caliber assured me to trust his staff.

Do your own research, bring your own questions and take a chance!

Mini ivf using clomid, letrozol, cetrotide and very small doses of follistim.

I think in total the cost was ~14k. The part that was annoying was since I was doing outside monitoring it cost me an additional 1k each month for NHFC to review the results.

No comment.

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. Lipkin has a very straightforward way of talking, but more so like someone who knows what she's talking about a not a blunt, rude person. Talking with her instantly makes me feel better because she's so smart and clever, even. She's one of those people who's nodding in understanding before I'm done bumbling through my half-formed questions. She listens as well as she advises, which is awesome. She's a very busy person, but she finds time to call back or meet in person, whichever is most convenient. I'm glad I chose her.

You won't see her all the time, so take advantage of your meetings and calls with her. Have all your questions prepared. She knows her stuff.

First cycle: birth control pills for a week, 300 units of Gonal-F per shot until they later reduce, Clomid, Letrozole, and Cetrotide taken in separated parts. Second cycle: the same, but the Gonal-F units were smaller.

The monitoring happens at every visit or appointment. Your name will come up next to its own monitoring room number on the television, so pay attention!

Roughly 10k, give or take. Much cheaper than the competition.

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.