Northwestern Fertility & Reproductive Medicine

He has a wonderful reputation but due to his accent I couldn't understand a lot of what he was saying, especially on the telephone.

Make sure his nurse is there so she can repeat anything that you didn't understand.

My insurance was very good and covered a good portion of expenses related to IVF.

Dr. Marsh is friendly and seemed very knowledgeable, but the appointments felt rushed. My biggest issue with her was there no protocol in place for what to do when I got a negative pregnancy test. It was me who had to call the clinic frantic that my period had started and I didn't know what meds to take for the upcoming month.

Be prepared to never be able to reach her. You can only directly call the 2 gatekeepers (receptionists) whose sole function is to take a message to pass it on to a nurse. Get ready to have your phone with you at all times so when the nurse calls you back 48 hours later you answer. If you don't answer, you have to start the process all over again of first calling the gatekeepers. The one time I asked for Dr Marsh specifically it took her 2 weeks to call me back because she was in Italy, but the staff never let me know there would be a delay.

We did 3 months of IUIs with chomid or femara. She suggested doing 3 months of IUIs before IVF mainly because insurance requires it. She admitted if chlomid doesn't work in the first few months it probably won't work. She was very knowledgeable. Were going to move on to IVF but I switched before then because Northwestern had a low success rate for IVF for women aged 38-39.

I was referred to Dr. Pavone by a co-worker who had a good experience with her. I unfortunately did not have a single positive interaction with her and regret not switching doctors sooner. I understand that infertility is a very indepth and complicated area of medicine to practice. I respect doctors that can be blunt and straightforward, but also appreciate empathy and heartfelt support. Dr. Pavone acted like a robot at each appointment. She never asked how I was feeling or asked for my opinion. Because I suffered from eating disorders in the past, I felt that Dr. Pavone blamed me for my infertility problems. While they may have contributed to it, I went into early menopause at 25 and that was unrelated to any previous issue I had. Dr. Pavone did do an HSG to check for issues but should have also checked my uterus with a hysteroscopy, but she didn’t. Because of that, I had three unsuccessful medicated IUI’s that never could have worked because of polyps and scar tissue on my uterus. I believe Dr. Pavone was quick to write off many of my symptoms and didn’t look into things as much as she should have. She decided on a route of treatment very quickly and didn’t seem to take my opinions or that of previous doctors into account. I was a poor responder to my first round of medication. She upped my Menopur dosage so much and so quickly that I suffered from ovarian hyper stimulation. I called her office for days saying I was in a lot of pain and she said it was normal and brushed off my complaints. I finally told a nurse I needed to be seen and they said they would try to squeeze me in. I ended up waiting for 4 hours in the waiting room before they remembered I was there. Dr. Pavone was not apologetic about my wait. Once she realized how swollen my ovaries were, she did apologize but didn’t change my dosage.

I would never recommend that anyone work with Dr. Pavone. However, if they decided to, I would recommend that they act as a strong advocate for themselves. I wish I had stood up to Dr. Pavone and fought for myself. Dr. Pavone is very quick to make judgements and is not very open to other opinions. She does not care about her patients on an emotional level, so someone who needs a caring doctor should not work with Dr. Pavone.

She did 3 medicated IUIs and upped my dosage each time. She never did a scan of my uterus. Had she done so, she would have known that polyps and scar tissue blocked an embryo from implanting

Dr Barnes is incredibly warm as a person, though is bedside manner is a bit old school. I felt that once I had 1 failed cycle, my protocol was not changed prior to my second cycle. In between my 2 cycles, he discovered I had anemia. Anemia is perhaps the FIRST thing that should be tested for anytime you give blood so it was frustrating that it took an entire IVF cycle to discover this. Due to the anemia, Dr Branes wanted to do further testing to rule out internal bleeding since I showed no signs of anemia. This resulted in a colonoscopy and endoscopy which both came back clear. From there, Dr Barnes didnt have any other explanations as to why my first cycle failed so we moved forward with my second cycle - which also resulted in an early miscarriage. After 2 failed cycles I decided to move on to another clinic. We transfered our 1 frozen embryo when we left.

Be your own advocate. This would be my advice with any Dr, but especially with doctors at NW who barely know your name let alone your case.

I started my protocol with 3 months of timed intercourse on Clomid. Each month resulted in a negative pregnancy test. I then moved onto IUI. The first 3 cycles were on Clomid. Each resulted in a negative test. Each month on Clomid Dr Barnes bumped up my dosage, yet I only had 1 or 2 viable follicles each month. After 3 cycles of IUI on Clomid and little reaction, Dr Barnes put me on Femara. We did 2 cycles on Femara, both resulting in a negative pregnancy test. Dr Barnes wanted me to do a 6th cycle of IUI, but we insisted we move to IVF. We did our first round of IVF which resulted in 2 quality embryos. My husband and I had decided in advance of our fresh transfer that we wanted to put 2 embryos in, however at NW their Dr's rotate and on the day of my transfer, a Dr Kazer was on rotation. He came into the room prior to transfer to confirm we had 2 viable embryos and when we let him know we wanted to transfer both, he basically used his scare tactics to force us into only putting in 1 embryo. I feel like this is a result of both his bedside manner, and the fact that NW does not like multiple pregnancies and look down upon transferring more than one embryo. We felt almost bullied and defeated and when I got pregnant, then quickly had a miscarriage, we regretted not following our hearts and transferring two. During our second IVF cycle, we insisted they allow us to transfer two. Again, Dr Barnes was not the Dr that did the procedure. This time it was Dr Robins who also tried to convince us to transfer one, but we stuck to our guns and transferred 2. Dr Robins is also a fan of 3-day transfers which did not sit right with me, but at the time of transfer, being hormonal and vulnerable, unfortunately you often listen to the Drs as opposed to following your gut.

Cattle call with numbers

IVF was $10k per cycle. IUI was $700. This was the out of pocket (cash) cost.

He was really personal, he tried to make jokes and make me feel good/comfortable. He would call personally with some test results. He listened to what I wanted (I wanted to try to do uiu without any drugs at least for the first time.) He was positive/optimistic but at the same time tried to be realistic.

Talk to your doctor; tell him your preference; work together as a team...

I had some blood work done first; then they checked my tubes and uterus to make sure I didn't have any issues there. I wanted to try first anything possible without hormones/drugs. So Doctor understood and worked with me. We did our first IUI without any hormones and it worked from the first time.

I don't remember plus my health insurance covers most of it

I really liked Dr. Marsh, but the majority of the care provided was done by her Fellow or her team of nurses. Once the care plan was established, we had very little contact with her. While I liked her as a person, we were frustrated by her one size fits all approach to inseminations and we were not given the opportunity to adjust my meds based on my results.

Be prepared to work with her whole team, not just her. Ask her to clarify who will be doing the inseminations and ask her about clinic protocols as she was not forthcoming with all of the protocols at the beginning on my treatment.

I did 4 IUI's with donor sperm with Dr. Marsh. I was prescribed clomid for the first three rounds and femera for the last round.

Costs were very straightforward and through the main Northwestern billing portal.

Dr Kazer was hands on and as invested in getting me pregnant as I was. Dr Kazer always took the time to talk to me in person or on the phone about my treatment. While being very upfront with medicine and its statistics he remained a my cheerleader as well. He was always warm, and when he could add humor to the situation he never hesitated.

Totally trust him. He knows what he is doing.

Kind and has good bedside manner, but not willing to change protocol or try new things. Did not want to look into endometriosis as a possibility for our troubles (which I had suspected I had since age 11), said my husbands morphology and motility were fine (wasted our time with 3 IUIs) when another clinic said otherwise and did not want to work with a reproductive immunologist. I ended up leaving her and finding out I did indeed have immunological disorders and stage III endometriosis. Went on to have a successful ICSI cycle with a new clinic after 3 failed IUIs and 1 failed ICSI cycle at Northwestern. I also was told I could get up right after our fresh transfer at Northwestern and didn't need to wait. Dr. Pavone never once performed any of my IUIs, egg retrieval or transfer.

I would look elsewhere and seek a RE that is more flexible and finding out what is wrong and treating those issues. I felt a lot of my concerns weren't addressed or looked into. Once I went to a new RE that was willing to look into possible immune issues and endo and treat them I had a successful ICSI cycle.

Cattle call, but I assume most clinics are like that. The second clinic we changed to was the same.

I had a very positive experience with him. He has a warm demeanor and is knowledgeable. In my opinion, he is very optimistic about treatment (which is a nice-to-have through this process). I did felt like at a certain point when IUI wasn't working, I was leading the process rather than getting answers about next steps.

He is blunt and truthful. He is also caring and compassionate. He lets you know factually how likely pregnancy is and doesn't give any false hopes. I am happy he was my doctor. He was extremely helpful

Ask as many questions as you. Red to feel comfortable about the process

I had to do injections anf daily blood draws then use progesterone to keep levels high

Dr. Kazer was kind and compassionate. He was upfront with all information clearly set objectives. He was confident and professional while maintaining a good bedside manner. He always returned phone calls and called with test results himself.

Make an appointment with him. He knows his profession and is an amazing doctor.

With my son, we used clomid first to stimulate growth. We then moved on to IUI. Again we used clomid and injections to release the eggs. We had 3 IUI resulting in 1 single successful pregnancy. When I went back to see Dr. Kazer to conceive again, we went directly to IUI. Clomid and an injection to release eggs. After one failed IUI, we began the IVF process. I cannot remember the drug names. I used some hormonal injections to grow eggs. We did the retrieval and progesterone shots following. I had 2 single transfers of embryos and then transferred 2 embryos resulting in multiple(twin) pregnancy.

It was very efficient. Hours of availability made the process easier.

My insurance covered most everything. We needed to pay for freezing and testing sperm. We needed to pay with co-pays for hormone pills and injections.

Dr. Kazer gave me the choice for the eSET and then recommended the multiple embryo transfer when the 2 eSET were unsuccessful

Dr. Confino was kind and caring. He is extremely knowleable.

He is very funny. During my egg transfer(I was a little stress out) he made everyone in the room laugh.

As a strength for me was his complete candor. I can see how if you wanted more care that his style may not blend. It was ideal for us. There were times that another doctor did a transfer but at that point I was confident in the full team and saw no issue with using another team member.

Ask how many Confino babies there are - so many.... If you don't like direct, use another doctor. If you are mater a fact he's a super fit.

We started with oral meds to stimulate ovulation results. We quickly detected a cyst on an ovary that was going to be drained. Upon consult with another doctor there was concern of cancer. It was removed via laperscopic surgery when Stage 4 endometrious was discovered. That accelerated treatment after healing into IVF. One IVF process was successful for a couple weeks before miscarriage. We then took time under medical process to suppress my system (mini-menopause) so we might have a better shot at the next round of IVF. That healing and suppressing journey added time. From there we tried one more time on IVF and just could not produce viable eggs that could sustain. This far into the journey we were open to the idea of egg donation. We interviewed two companies and begin that new journey. Our first donor was rejected by the clinic on the day of extraction because she admitted to smoking. We were heart broken and had to start over. We would have used her eggs but the clinic has strict expectations. Our next donor and implantation was success - 2 in and 2 out.

It was handled very efficiently in my opinion

Don't really recall. It was very expensive and by the time we hit the 3rd round we were at the ceiling of our coverage. They enabled me to turn in my unused meds as a credit towards the donor process.

Dr. Confino has been doing this a long time and is very well respected in his field. As a single woman wanting to have a child, he was supportive and nonjudgmental. He explained his plan for my age of 39 and we agreed on a time schedule. I felt he was honest with me and that I was in great hands.

Ask questions and be prepared to hear the truth. He told me that if I was unable to become pregnant in three months that there was a problem. I listened to everything he told me to do and felt comfortable with out three month plan of IUI with and without drugs. I got pregnant at 39 after the first IUI

It was 16 years ago but I do remember a little bit. As I was only allowed to purchase four vials of donor sperm from the donor I selected, I wanted to follow all the rules. The plan was to do one insemination with without drugs, one month with clomid and then two the last month with clomid or another drug. I went in for an ultrasound on day ?, had an injection of profasi and came back a day or two later for the IUI. I went on to have a perfect pregnancy and healthy baby

It was in 2000 but my GUESS is that the consults, ultrasound and IUI were around $4500