Oregon Fertility Institute

Strength: personal care, always see same doctor Weaknesses: Closed on Sundays, which may at times be best day for retrieval and/or IUI. No nursing staff, techs lack experience drawing blood, doctor's experience is limited given the small size of the clinic. Good for easy cases, may not be so good for challenging cases.

Personalized and attentive care.

She didn't have nurses, just techs who did blood draws and office work. They were Inexperienced and would have to poke me numerous times.

After doing IUIs with another clinic, where I would see a different provider on each visit I wanted a smaller clinic where I would see the same doctor each time. Unfortunately we had a bad experience at this clinic. I don't know that it was Dr. Chang's fault--it may have been the lab or other factors, but we did a retrieval and ALL of our embryos--which had looked okay on day 3--were terrible on day 5, and we were told that they weren't worth transferring. This was a huge financial and emotional investment, and we were left with nothing. The doctor said she had no idea what went wrong and that we might want to consider donor eggs. I waited nearly a year, did a lot of research on clinics, and went to a top-rated clinic in SoCal. We were successful with our very first IVF there, where we produced three genetically-normal embryos.

Just do your homework and compare her success rates with those of other clinics.

I did travel cross country during one of the cycles. The doctor had approved this, but I wonder if it had a deleterious effect (time zone adaptation, etc.) Also, I found out that I had been Vitamin D-deficient and that I had MTHFR mutations and needed folate. Maybe these things were working against me--I have no idea. Dr. Chang's protocols seemed very reasonable. The only other thing I can think of is that she may have retrieved the eggs a little too late. Maybe they should have come out on Sunday, when the clinic was closed. I think she did the retrieval on a Monday morning.

not covered, self-pay

Since its just Dr. Chang there there isn't much else to add separately about the clinic. She runs a professional clinic - small staff, but very clean, friendly, helpful, timely.

She seemed to understand the emotional toll infertility was taking and was sensitive to the stress and impact that was having on my life. While her focus was as a scientist to tweak the process to get a positive end result for us, she understood that we still had to take things at our own pace. She was always the one who called us with any results, positive or negative. She was always timely for everything as well.

Small staff. I have hard veins to get blood from and only one of their nurses could regularly do it without having to send me out to a separate lab (IMO not due to their lack of proficiency, I seriously have tough veins for anyone). After a particularly difficult blood draw resulting in having to go to a separate lab for a result, at my next appt they called in that nurse who was on maternity to handle me. i appreciated that they went above and beyond and accommodated that. Overall the nurses were all helpful and friendly and professional. That being said, I still saw the Dr. more often than the nurses.

She is a scientist not an OB, so once you understand as a doctor she's there to help diagnose and troubleshoot your situation, her approach makes a lot of sense. Her demeanor was calm and she was always sensitive to making sure I was okay with the process and adjusted the process when necessary for me. I loved that her practice was just her, so I wasn't shuffled to other doctors depending on scheduling. She was always available and never missed an appointment and was only late on one occasion (maybe 15 minutes late if that!). She listened to any concerns I had and allowed me to very a very active part of the process understanding what options were available depending on how aggressive I wanted to be in the process (ICSI, PGS, etc).

There are some other 'big name' fertility groups in Portland, which are fantastic. What Dr. Chang has is the same results as those groups, but you never get shuffled around to other doctors (which is what happens at the big practices). Chang is the one you see for everything, and if you are looking for a personal relationship she is a good fit.

Don't recall exactly, I did some IUIs with and without follistim (none at all successful but could easily mature eggs) and then moved to IVF. It was a pretty traditional protocol using lupron, menopur, follistim, HCG among a few others. I produced a plethora of eggs my first fresh round (almost 30) but only a small percentage (even with ICSI) fertilized and matured to good embryos (maybe 8 total). Ended up with a chemical pregnancy that didn't pass on its own and had to have a D&C. Second round of IVF (fresh round again) was the same protocol but produced around 15 eggs and ended with 4 viable embryos (with ICSI and tested with PGS which ruled out two other embryos that were abnormal). I have 3 year old twins from that IVF.

Insurance covered a lot of things but we burned through our insurance's 5K max of meds coverage, so out of pocket for meds of an IVF cycle were around 2.5K as I recall. Overall for two fresh IVF cycles (second including the PGS testing) we spent around 15K out of pocket after insurance (and things insurance didn't cover, such as 'experimental treatments').

The clinic is clean and easy to locate. It has a decent sized waiting room. It's not huge, but every time I've been there I have been the only person in the waiting room. There is a restroom conveniently located in the clinic and one right across the hall.

I felt like Dr. Chang listens well to my concerns and answers my questions as completely as she is able. She offers her suggestions for treatment, but leaves the final decision completely up to me.

Her nursing staff is very kind. All the girls I've talked to there are friendly and sweet. There are one or two that, when they answer my phone calls, seem a bit hesitant. But I think they are new, and if they don't know the answer to something they always ask someone who does.

Dr. Chang is knowledgeable and listens well. We feel that she is great at offering suggestions and her professional opinion, then leaving the decision up to us. I tend to pass out when I have my blood drawn and she always offers me candy and plenty of time to get my bearings before moving on with an appointment. She never makes me feel like it's an inconvenience.

She does an ultrasound and blood draw at the beginning of each cycle to see where my body's at and monitor how the medication is working. I then call when I have a positive ovulation and we schedule a time for IUI. She does an ultrasound to check my follicles.

Consultation cost, prescription costs, cost for IUI procedure and ultrasounds, charges for blood work

It’s small. One doctor. But she will come in on a Sunday if that’s the best moment for a procedure. The waiting room is small. I would ask about how they separate egg donors from couples on retrieval days

She laughed with me. She gave me clear information. She was willing to work with me to monitor DE cycle when I couldn’t add her services & decided to cycle abroad. She understood financial constraints & did what she could to help.

Great at blood draws - painless! Attentive & asked what I needed.

She truly cares about her patients & takes time to do appropriate tests & talk through options. She runs a small practice and uses OHSU labs, & uses her own judgement which clearly comes from both science & her gut instinct. The most kind & caring doctor I’ve written with. I’m writing this review 7 years after our last appointment.... that’s how much I was impressed by her.

Know that it is a small practice using outside labs. If you want an in house donor pool go elsewhere.

I do not recall specific dosage but when I did IUI with donor sperm she was willing to push my ovaries to the max to rule out the need for egg donor. She also respected my reluctance to spend $ on own egg IVF when I was deciding to move on to DE.

About $12,000 for 3 DS IUIs & several consults / monitoring outside DE cycle

Strengths, small, caring, warm and friendly staff. Weakness - only one doctor.

She went above and beyond to show she cared. Never rushed and gave her full attention to us. She always answered questions thoroughly.

Deidre was excellent and always remembered all the intricate details regarding our situation. She was kind, helpful and attentive.

We loved Dr. Chang and how she truly cared about us. Sadly we didn't achieve a successful pregnancy under her care though. She was very knowledgeable and communicated very well. She was always very available and made us feel like we were her only patients.

Take notes. Clear your schedule as much as possible to allow for last min appointments.

We used the highest dose of follistem, Lupron, among many other fertility drugs. As well as aspirin, antibiotics and more.

Our doctor suggested we transfer two embryos both times (2 tranfers total).