Northwestern Fertility & Reproductive Medicine

She was not at all compassionate and didn't care about me as a person or my situation. However, she got us the results we wanted. She answered our questions, but sometimes it felt like we were annoying her by asking questions. We took it upon ourselves to understand our situation and I will say that she was willing to answer our questions. We also didn't really see her often - I can only remember 2 appointments before we got pregnant, and one appointment after to check-in before she released us to an OBGYN. This was through 4 rounds of IVF, so it seemed like we didn't really know her or she us.

She is blunt, expect that. Come with questions if you care about the intricate details of your treatment.

I don't remember.

It was kind of like a cattle call, but I actually liked how efficient it was.

My insurance paid for it.

She told us about SET and seemed to want us to choose that. We didn't, and she didn't seem to care. Although she didn't really seem to care about us, so it isn't that surprising.

Dr. Barnes was great for our initial and IVF consults. He answered our questions clearly (and there were a lot!) and was prompt with follow-up questions I sent through the patient portal. I wish he'd talked with us more during our failed IUIs to see if we could change the protocols, but ultimately I think we would have ended up doing IVF anyway.

Advocate for yourself! Ask questions and make sure you are clear on answers.

For our IUIs we used clomid with an Ovidrel trigger. The first month we did 50mg of clomid on days 3-7, the second 100mg days 5-9, an the third 100mg days 3-7. Once we decided to move to IVF I started birth control for 21 days. On day 15 I added 10 units of Lupron, which I stayed on through my stimulation phase. I began 150 units of Follistim and 150 units of Menopur on day 2 of my cycle. From there I stayed on the same dose for 13 days, along with the 10 units of Follistim. On day 13 I decreased the Lupron to 5 units and added the Ovidrel trigger. Egg retrieval was scheduled for day 15. 12 eggs were retrieved, with 11 being mature. 8 fertilized normally with ICSI. On day 3 we went in for transfer and still had 8 growing. We transferred two 8-cell embryos and on day 6 two were still growing and were then frozen. I tested positive 7 days after my transfer and had my beta 10 days post transfer. A week and a half after my positive beta I went in for an ultrasound where we saw one gestational sac; a week later we saw one fetus and the heartbeat. Our daughter was born in February 2017 at full term.

Monitoring appointments take place between 7-7:45AM on weekdays and 8-8:30AM on weekends. Only once was there a line out the door in the five months I worked with this clinic. The other mornings it was a breeze to check in, wait to be called for lab/ultrasound, meet with nurse (for IUI only), and then make a new appointment or head to work to wait for more information pending lab results (IVF). It's a well oiled machine.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think our meds were around $2700 (with insurance) and most of our procedures were covered by insurance. In the end I think we spent around $2K toward procedures, including embryo freezing, which was not covered by my insurance.

Dr. Barnes pushed SET and advised against transferring multiple embryos. We felt more comfortable with two and we were OK with the possibility of multiples. He was out of the office the day of the transfer and his chief, Dr. Jared Robins, did our transfer with one of the fellows (Dr. Okeigwe). Dr. Robins suggested transferring two embryos based on quality and my age. Be advised that Dr. Barnes will try to push you toward SET.

Dr. Robins is very knowledgable and blunt with his opinions. He only uses methods that have a lot of supportive data, which is ok but also seems rigid when what we have tried did not work. He returns my calls and welcomes me to call him on his cell phone. I wish he was more decisive with what approach to take instead of me having to do my own research and then ask him if we can try different methods. I want Dr. Robins to be more of a leader in my care and not be closed off to other methods as long as there is no harm to myself or my pregnancy.

Be clear and direct because he can ramble off his thoughts when answering your questions and the you leave the coversation feeling like you never got an answer

My main issue was scar tissue in the uterine cavity and developing a thick uterine lining. Dr. Robins put me on Lupron and estrogen patches leading up to transfer and the results were good each cycle.

Donor cycle was roughly $16,000 IUI was covered by insurance. Frozen embryo transfers were between $5-$6k hysteroscopies laparoscopy HSG MRI were all covered by insurance.

I felt Dr. Robins was very candid and honest with me, which I appreciated. He felt our prognosis was good, which made me feel hopeful. Though I did not see him as often as I saw other providers in his clinic, he always responded to calls promptly when I wanted to speak with him and made me feel cared for.

The way the clinic is run, you will not see Dr. Robins too often, but he is overseeing your care. He is blunt but honest and will work to get you the results you desire. He has a huge knowledge base and always makes you feel as if you are in good hands.

First did workup, established that I had PCOS and my husband had a low sperm count. Once we had these results, immediately started me on femara for ovulation regulation, and started IUIs to increase the chances of husband's sperm getting to egg. Unfortunately we had no pregnancies after 3 IUIs. Once we had tried IUI 3 times we advanced to IVF (which Dr. Robins said we would likely need from the get-go, though he was pleased w/ my response to femara and my husbands counts so he felt several trials of IUI were appropriate). For IVF I was started on Menopur and Cetrotide, which I responded well to. Used ovidrel once the eggs were ready. Also as Dr. Robins predicted, I responded very well to low doses of these medications. We became pregnant with a single embryo fresh transfer at 5 days. We still have 3 frozen embryos in the clinic.

It was a bit of a cattle call experience, though there are so many u/s techs that generally the wait was pretty short.

Costs were minimal, was largely covered by insurance, with copays. Overall I think we spent under $2000 (several things werent covered, ie embryo freezing)

Dr. Barnes is a nice man, but I have always preferred female doctors. It was hard to get an appointment and he was the only one available when I could come in. He seems a little shy so I had trouble talking to him at times, especially after the miscarriage. He is very competent and knowledgeable.

Make sure you ask lots of questions and understand every fully during all procedures. Get support from a therapist or a support group from the beginning of your fertility treatments! I wish the doctors and staff had talked to me about this from my first appointment.

I did one IUI with him with 50 mg of Clomid.

Insurance covered almost all of it luckily.

I spent much more time with the nurses than with Dr. Barnes, but I felt like he was always friendly and helpful and knew what he was talking about. He laid out short- and long-term plans for treatment, so I knew what to expect.

You might get pregnant sooner than you expect!

I believe I took letrazole with a shot each time- the plan was to do this for 3 cycles and then continue but with IUI added. We got pregnant the third time around.

I don't remember

Dr Confino is one of the warmest and kindest doctors. He is very personable and has a hilarious sense of humor. During difficult times it was such an asset to have a doctor like him

Be assertive and ask questions as you are seen by the nurses routinely and they don't always explain the whole picture

I actually liked Dr. Pavone initially quite a bit and found her good at accepting suggestions and letting me pursue some more testing that a second opinion doctor had given me when we weren't making progress. She was open to trying knew things, up to a point, but we finally had to move on when she refused to try any other protocols and was convinced we should be moving onto DE (donor egg). I have DOR and was responding poorly to her protocols----she tried EPP with high doses of follistim/menopur and threw in ganirelix at the end, and when two rounds of that yielded very low follicles, she then tried clomid, followed by follistim/menopur/ganirelix when I commented on how I seemed to respond much better to clomid than I did all the expensive injectables. I did better on the clomid, but still not that great, yet she wouldn't try anything else, not even a micro-dose lupron protocol. If we wanted to proceed with her, it would have to be with the clomid protocol, which could only be done a few times due to limits on clomid exposure, and even then, she was pushing us to consider DE or adoption, which we had told her wasn't an option for us at this time. I do think that compared to the other docs at NW, she's one of the best and she's the most liberal (besides Dr. Marsh) and aggressive. She just gave up on my quicker than I think she should have, especially since I am only 37 (young for IVF, I keep being told).

Be proactive and keep doing your own research. She is not going to give lots of suggestions or think outside the box for you, but is open to trying things if you want to (ie, she let me have a laparoscopy after my 3rd failed attempt at ER when I asked about it and also did a huge panel of immunology testing at my request even though I hadn't had recurring miscarriages---I wanted testing b/c I wanted information preemptively in case it could prevent a miscarriage should we ever get pregnant).

for IUIs---clomid CDs 2-6 and then ovidrel trigger, used ultrasound monitoring. IVFs---1st and 2nd attempts, did estrogen priming then started follistim/menopur once menses started, then added in ganirelix towards the end. Pavone felt this was the best approach for women with DOR. Both of these cycles yielded very low follicle development; 2 mature eggs the first round, and then the second was converted to IUI (and only then b/c I insisted I wasn't wasting an insurance-covered ER on 1-2 follicles). First round had nothing to transfer. Obviously BFNs both those rounds 3rd and 4th IVF attempts: clomid 150mg CD 2-5, then added on follistim/menopur/saizen/ganirelix. Better follicle recruitment, 3rd round poor egg quality, but 4th round, finally with 3 perfect embryos to transfer. For the 4th attempt, it should be noted that I had started to use a ton of antioxidant supplements recommended by a 2nd opinion RE and had also started seeing a chinese medicine practitioner and was using chinese herbs and acupuncture weekly). BFNs both those rounds. Pavone like the response to clomid and didn't want to change anything up if we proceeded with her.

See earlier comment about the clinic. Monitoring hours are 7a-7:45 M-F and 8a-8:30 on Sat/Sun. If you weren't there before 7 and standing in line, it could take up to an hour to get out, but it's faster than trying to get monitoring done at FCI.

IUIs were about $1200 each with the ultrasounds, meds, and actual insemination. IVFs were covered under insurance once I changed plans, but would've been 8-9K for the package, not including medicine costs. Office visits were $250-350 and the labs were expensive, too, since they were through Northwestern.

She did not have a warm bedside manner. She did not meet with us often. Even after setbacks or bad news we had to request conference calls. She went on maternity leave and we had no idea we had been transferred to another doctor.

You have to be a good self-advocate in order to gett all of your questions answered. Don't look for a lot of support with the emotional piece of fertility.

We did pgd and pgs, which we got the sense she preferred we didn't do. When we didn't get a lot of embryos on our first cycle we tested our embryos on day 3 rather than day 5, which in retrospect is not what we would do now. That cycle was unsuccessful.

It was pretty efficient. I always made sure to get there early so I could be seen the soonest. The techs were always very nice.

My insurance covered most costs.

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