During our first consultation, he [Dr. Tsai] made me feel uncomfortable and defective, highlighting my age and quickly ushering me out of his office. After testing my husband's sperm and looking at the results of my Fallopian tube test, he said "The problem is her."...He then proceeded to tell us how popular and successful IVF is now, seeing as "JLO" and "Beyonce" have all had it done...He used this odd clicking contraption to "count" the sperm by hand. It looked like he was doing Morse code. Then he rendered his opinion that my husband had "super sperm." Again, no staining, no report. For that, he charged $250. He told us that we should have IVF and get pregnant once and then maybe we could get pregnant afterwards by ourselves but we should try IVF because "JLO" and "Beyonce" had done it. I can't believe he practices medicine.
None of the furniture matches [at New York Fertility Center]. It looks like Tony Tsai took old mismatched furniture from his home and threw them in this office. There were people standing because there weren't enough seats. There was a pair of fertility stones called "Shiva Longham" with a framed placard that explained how you were supposed to use them...There were old random posters of Jesus and Precious moments babies...My husband had to come out with a cup of sperm and hand it over, not anonymously, to the receptionist. Everything about these clinics looked like they were not legal or up to code or HIPAA regulations.
How was your experience with Tony Tsai at New York Fertility Center?
Tony Tsai is an unprofessional doctor with no compassion or bedside manner. He said that "The problem is her" when he found out that one of my tubes was blocked. When he performed the sperm analysis on my husband's sperm, he brought us to the back of a corridor with no doors in his Queens office, and proceeded to place the sperm under a microscope. He joked around and laughed at me when I looked disgusted when he put the sperm on the glass rectangle, stirring the sperm and slowly squirting it onto the glass, like it was some kind of sauce. He said something along the lines of "You don't like it?" It was unprofessional and disgusting. We later find out that his so-called analysis was unscientific. There was no report, there was no mention of morphology. He basically put the sperm on a microscope and showed us the squirming sperm magnified on his old Windows 95 computer. He used this odd clicking contraption to "count" the sperm by hand. It looked like he was doing Morse code. Then he rendered his opinion that my husband had "super sperm." Again, no staining, no report. For that, he charged $250. He told us that we should have IVF and get pregnant once and then maybe we could get pregnant afterwards by ourselves but we should try IVF because "JLO" and "Beyonce" had done it. I can't believe he practices medicine.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Tony Tsai at New York Fertility Center?
DO NOT GO TO TONY TSAI. And if you do, you must have thick skin because he will make you feel uncomfortable if you are a woman. He speaks with disdain and makes unprofessional and inappropriate jokes.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Tony Tsai at New York Fertility Center?
Dr. Tony Tsai is a terrible doctor. During our first consultation, he made me feel uncomfortable and defective, highlighting my age and quickly ushering me out of his office. After testing my husband's sperm and looking at the results of my Fallopian tube test, he said "The problem is her." My husband had to hold back and not give him a piece of his mind. He then proceeded to tell us how popular and successful IVF is now, seeing as "JLO" and "Beyonce" have all had it done, as if that was something I wanted to here.
Describe the protocols Tony Tsai used in your cycles at New York Fertility Center and their degree of success.
Thank goodness, I decided not to go any further with Tony Tsai. I brought the one clinical report from Lenox Hill with me to Columbia Fertility and started treatment there. The only thing Tony Tsai was good for was ordering the Fallopian tube test.
Describe your experience with the nursing staff at New York Fertility Center.
The nursing staff are also the receptionists. When I saw that the same people running my credit card and making my appointments were running to the room to take my blood, I was worried. There seems to be some kind of ultrasound technician. She did not tell me what she was doing or why she was doing it.
Describe your experience with New York Fertility Center.
Tony Tsai has 2 offices, one in Manhattan and 1 in Flushing, Queens. The office in Manhattan appears to an apartment converted into a clinic. The elevator is scary. The suites are make shift and inspire no confidence that it is sanitary or professional. I saw people coming out of some back corridor looking in pain. I would not be surprised if they had their IVF in some poorly lit room back there. The Flushing office, if you could believe it, is much worse. None of the furniture matches. It looks like Tony Tsai took old mismatched furniture from his home and threw them in this office. There were people standing because there weren't enough seats. There was a pair of fertility stones called "Shiva Longham" with a framed placard that explained how you were supposed to use them (I took a picture). There were old random posters of Jesus and Precious moments babies. The receptionists all had tatoos and used foul language. They looked and sounded like convicts or truck drivers. My husband had to come out with a cup of sperm and hand it over, not anonymously, to the receptionist. Everything about these clinics looked like they were not legal or up to code or HIPAA regulations.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Tony Tsai at New York Fertility Center.
I compared the costs that Tony Tsai was billing my insurance versus what Columbia Fertility had billed them and it appeared that he was charging a lot for ultrasounds and consultations, where I barely saw him for 30 minutes. I brought it to the attention of my insurance.
Describe Tony Tsai's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at New York Fertility Center.
Tony Tsai did not talk about this with us.
What specific things went wrong at New York Fertility Center?
- Failed to call with results
- Failed to convey critical information
Describe the specific things that went wrong at New York Fertility Center.
The "sperm analysis" had no written report, no staining, no morphology analysis. I only learned this after I went to a real clinic and they asked us where the report was and we described what the test consisted of (Tony Tsai splattering sperm in an unventilated corner of the office onto a glass and looking at the sperm magnified under a microscope and shown to us on an old windows 95 computer).
There was no anonymity when my husband's sample was taken.
The staff was unfriendly, vulgar.
There was quack science (shiva longham) and Jesus pictures, and mismatched furniture in the Queens office.
The Manhattan office was a converted apartment where the receptionists doubled as the nurses who took blood.
Tony Tsai joked inappropriately about my disgust having to look at and smell the sperm as he stirred and squirted it onto the microscope glass.
Tony Tsai talked with disdain about my age, the fact that it was my "fault" that we were having trouble conceiving, and tried to impress us by telling us that "JLO" and "Beyonce" have had IVF.
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Clinic
New York Fertility Center
New York